1 January –
RTÉ One's New Year's Eve celebrations include a special edition of The Late Late Show at 10.15pm featuring a line up of guests including
Midge Ure,
Wheatus,
The Tumbling Paddies and the
RTÉ Concert Orchestra. This is followed by The New Year's Eve Countdown Concert from
Dublin Castle featuring
Picture This and presented by
Anna Geary.[1][2]The Late Late Show is watched by an audience of 531,000 viewers,[3] while viewers take to social media to comment on the lack of a presenter to ring in the New Year during the coverage of The New Year's Eve Countdown, which instead sees Picture This playing one of their songs up until ten seconds to midnight, followed by an onscreen countdown.[4]
7 January – LGBTQ+ and HIV activist
Rebecca Tallon De Havilland presents the first edition of Second Chances, a new wellbeing series on
Virgin Media One, and becomes the first openly trans Irish person to host their own TV series.[6]
24 January – Ahead of the publication of a report the next day into the production Toy Show The Musical, which was a commercial failure during its short run in 2022, it emerges that auditors
Grant Thornton found the musical was never formally approved by the
RTÉ Board.[12]
25 January – Publication of the
Grant Thornton report into the 2022 show Toy Show The Musical, which finds that RTÉ's recording of the show's sponsorship money was "not in line with generally accepted accounting practices".[13]
26 January –
Following the previous day's release of the Grant Thornton report, Minister for Media
Catherine Martin says the present
RTÉ Board should remain in place "for now" to facilitate the broadcaster's day-to-day operation.[14]
29 January – RTÉ publishes the names of its top 10 earners for 2022;
Ryan Tubridy was the broadcaster's top earner on
€515,000, followed by
Joe Duffy on €351,000, and
Claire Byrne on €320,883.[18]
31 January – A report by McCann Fitzgerald, the firm of solicitors appointed by RTÉ to conduct a review of its voluntary redundancy packages finds that there are ten instances that did not satisfy the requirements of a redundancy within the meaning of the Redundancy Payments Acts.[19]
February
1 February – Following the previous day's publication of the McCann Fitzgerald report,
Niamh Smyth, the chair of the Oireachtas Media Committee, calls for
Dee Forbes, the former
Director General of RTÉ, and former RTÉ Chair Moya Doherty, to make themselves available for its next sitting on 14 February.[20]
2 February –
Virgin Media One airs the opening match of the
2024 Six Nations Championship as Ireland take on France. The match is watched by 1.067 million viewers, while The Late Late Show is seen by an audience of around 100,000.[21]
4 February – Figures published by
Coimisiún na Meán show that RTÉ received three quarters of viewer and listener complaints during 2023.[22]
5 February – It has emerged that Bambi Thug, Ireland's 2024 Eurovision entrant, has featured in an X-rated music video published on several
adult websites.[23]
9–10 February –
RTÉ News provides live coverage of the state funeral of former Taoiseach
John Bruton.[24]
13 February – Virgin Media secures the broadcast rights to 166 matches from the
UEFA Champions League from 2024 to 2024.[25]
16 February – Northern Ireland First Minister
Michelle O'Neill appears as a guest on
RTÉ's The Late Late Show, where she says she wants to attend events important to the unionist community because it is important for politicians to "step outside of our traditional comfort zones".[26]
23 February –
Siún Ní Raghallaigh resigns as chair of the
RTÉ Board after Media Minister
Catherine Martin failed to express confidence in her following revelations Martin had been "misinformed" about the approval of an exit package for a former RTÉ executive.[27]
Northern Ireland rappers
Kneecap make an appearance on The Late Late Show during which they are seen wearing pro-Palestinian badges, while one member removes his jacket to reveal a Palestine sports top. RTÉ subsequently says that the band had agreed not to wear the badges before their appearance after being told doing so would breach the broadcaster's Content Guidelines.[28] The programme is watched by an audience of 416,000, a fall of 21,000 on the previous week, while RTÉ receives two complaints about the band's appearance.[29]
March
9 March –
RTÉ2 shows the
Six Nations match between Ireland and England, which results in a last-minute win for England, with the game having an average audience of 971,000, peaking at 1.2m at 6.33pm.[30]
29 March – The Late Late Show takes a break for Easter, with the 2015 film Brooklyn airing on RTÉ One in its place.[35]
April
5 April – The Late Late Show returns to RTÉ One with a
GAA special to mark the beginning of the
2024 GAA Championship.[35] The programme includes a surprise appearance by
Patrick Kielty's former
Down GAA minor team teammates.[36]
16 April – Broadcaster
Paul Byrne launches High Court proceedings against Virgin Media Television over an internal disciplinary procedure brought against him by the company.[37]
10 May – The Rise of Race Hatred, a BBC Spotlight documentary exploring the rise in race hate attacks in Northern Ireland wins the nations and regions category at the
Amnesty UK Media Awards.[41]
11 May – Ireland's
Bambie Thug finishes in sixth place in the Eurovision Song Contest, marking the country's first top-10 finish since 2011.[42]
June
4 June – Paul Byrne resolves his legal action against Virgin Media over its decision to launch internal disciplinary proceedings against him.[43]