A New Weekly Weather Broadcast in Irish Sign Language

July 29 2011, 12:02am

weather

RTÉ and Met Éireann are delighted to announce a new service for the deaf community.

The first weekly weather forecast in ISL (Irish Sign Language) will be broadcast from Sunday, 17th July, at 5.45pm on RTÉ One.

The two-minute bulletin will be presented by Sarah-Jane Moloney and Caroline Worthington, two experienced Irish Sign Language (ISL) interpreters. Together with a voiceover, it will be broadcast each Sunday evening with details of the predicted weather conditions for Ireland for the coming week.

The development is part of RTÉ’s ongoing commitment to the deaf and hard-of-hearing communities and is in addition to News for the Deaf, the programme Hands On and extensive subtitling. There are now subtitles on up to 90% of programming on RTÉ One and 76% on RTÉ Two during peak viewing hours, on main news bulletins and all current affairs output.

RTÉ acknowledges the great effort and commitment by the weather team and the ISL presenters in creating the new bulletin. This initiative between RTÉ and Met Éireann adds to the growing list of forecasts broadcast on both RTÉ One and RTÉ Two, supplementing the main bulletins which following the News at One, the Six One news and the Nine O Clock news.

These now include:

  • The European forecast (including a skiing forecast when appropriate) seven days per week, just before the Angelus
  • The World Forecast, Monday to Thursday, after the News on Two
  • The Marine Outlook, forecast on Fridays evenings on RTÉ One
  • The Farming Forecast on Sundays at lunchtime on RTÉ One

For further information contact Carolyn Fisher, Senior Press Officer, RTÉ News and Current Affairs
Telephone: 01 208 3996
Mobile: 087 285 6878
E: carolyn.fisher@rte.ie