''7 Days'' (previously ''Seven Days'') was an Irish current affairs television programme presented by Brian Farrell,

Brian Cleeve Brian Brendon Talbot Cleeve (22 November 1921 – 11 March 2003) was a writer, whose published works include twenty-one novels and over a hundred short stories. He was also an award-winning broadcaster on RTÉ television. Son of an Irish father ...

, and John O'Donoghue which was broadcast on

RTÉ One RTÉ One is an Irish free-to-air flagship television channel owned and operated by RTÉ. It is the most-popular and most-watched television channel in the country and was launched as ''Telefís Éireann'' on 31 December 1961, it was renamed ''R ...

from 1966 until 1976.

History

Background

''Seven Days'' was created by

as a replacement for the existing programme '' Sixty Six''. It was developed at a time when the station was expanding its current affairs programming. Innovations included having TDs and senators from the political parties giving their opinions on Dáil proceedings instead of hearing from the political correspondents of the daily newspapers.''The Irish Times'', "More public affairs in RTÉ schedule", 15 September 1966 Broadcast live on Monday evenings between 8:45pm and 9:15pm, it quickly became RTÉ's flagship current affairs programme. ''Seven Days'' was broadcast for the first time on 26 September 1966.

Presenters

John O'Donoghue,

and Brian Farrell were the first presenters of the programme. The three had earlier worked on Telefís Éireann's first current affairs programme ''

Broadsheet A broadsheet is the largest newspaper format and is characterized by long Vertical and horizontal, vertical pages, typically of in height. Other common newspaper formats include the smaller Berliner (format), Berliner and Tabloid (newspaper ...

'' in the early 1960s.

Rebranding

In 1967 the programme was merged with another current affairs programme, ''Division'', and rebranded as ''7 Days''. As a result of this amalgamation the team of presenters was expanded to include David Thornley, Ted Nealon,

Bill O'Herlihy Bill O'Herlihy (26 September 1938 – 25 May 2015) was an Irish television broadcaster and public relations executive. He was best known for his broadcasts for Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ), primarily in politics and sport. A presenter for ...

and Paddy Gallagher. In 1968, it was announced that the current affairs programme, which often tackled subjects of public controversy in a forthright manner, was to be moved to the

RTÉ News RTÉ News and Current Affairs (), also known simply as RTÉ News (''Nuacht RTÉ''), is the national news service provided by Irish public broadcaster (RTÉ). Its services include local, national, European and international news, investigative ...

division. This led to a threatened strike and ultimately to the resignation of several of the programme's presenters. ''7 Days'' was the first home-produced programme to be shown in colour by RTÉ, although colour transmissions of imports predated it.

Tribunal of Inquiry

In December 1969 the

Oireachtas The Oireachtas ( ; ), sometimes referred to as Oireachtas Éireann, is the Bicameralism, bicameral parliament of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. The Oireachtas consists of the president of Ireland and the two houses of the Oireachtas (): a house ...

voted to establish a tribunal of inquiry regarding a ''7 Days'' piece on money-lenders. The programme, which was filmed in part with hidden cameras and microphones, claimed that illegal moneylending was causing misery and that the State was not responding to it. The tribunal's terms of reference were: * That the allegation of the use of strong-arm methods by unlicensed moneylenders was unfounded * That the numbers and scale of illegal moneylenders operating in the country were far less than those suggested by the programme * That the statements made in the programme purporting to be confessions by moneylenders as to strong-arm debt recovery tactics were entirely valueless The tribunal concluded that the programme content had been exaggerated, although earlier claims that participants had been bribed with alcohol to respond to questions in a certain way were found to be untrue. Following the tribunal's report, comments critical of the manner of its establishment and the implications of the tribunal's conclusions were made in the Dáil on 25 February 1971 and 9 March 1971 by, among others,

Barry Desmond Barry Desmond (born 15 May 1935) is an Irish former Labour Party politician who was Minister for Health from 1982 to 1987 and Minister for Social Welfare from 1982 to 1986. He served as a Teachta Dála (TD) from 1969 to 1989, a Minister of St ...

and

Garret FitzGerald Garret Desmond FitzGerald (9 February 192619 May 2011) was an Irish Fine Gael politician, economist, and barrister who served twice as Taoiseach, serving from 1981 to 1982 and 1982 to 1987. He served as Leader of Fine Gael from 1977 to 1987 an ...

Ending

''7 Days'' was broadcast for the final time in 1976.

References

* Dowling, Jack & Doolan, Lelia. ''Sit Down and Be Counted: The Cultural Evolution of a Television Station''. Wellington Publishers (1969) * Horgan, John. ''Broadcasting and Public Life: RTÉ News and Current Affairs 1926-1997''. Four Courts Press (2004). *
Dáil motion to create a tribunal of inquiry, 16 December 1969

* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20110607103509/http://historical-debates.oireachtas.ie/D/0251/D.0251.197102250006.html Dáil Éireann - 25 February 1971
Dáil Éireann - 9 March 1971

Footnotes

External links

Clip of ''7 Days'' from 1967
(

Windows Media Player Windows Media Player (WMP, officially referred to as Windows Media Player Legacy to retronym, distinguish it from Windows Media Player (2022), the new Windows Media Player introduced with Windows 11) is the first media player (application soft ...

). Report on a public meeting about the

Irish language Irish (Standard Irish: ), also known as Irish Gaelic or simply Gaelic ( ), is a Celtic language of the Indo-European language family. It is a member of the Goidelic languages of the Insular Celtic sub branch of the family and is indigenous ...

, featuring

and John O'Donoghue.
Excerpt of ''7 Days'' from 1969
taken from th

of RTÉ'
Libraries and Archives Web Site
(

RealMedia RealMedia is a proprietary multimedia container format (digital), container format created by RealNetworks with the filename extension . RealMedia is used in conjunction with RealVideo and RealAudio, while also being used for Streaming media, st ...

). Opening credits and John O'Donoghue on personal debt.
Excerpt from 1971
taken from th

of the same web site (

). Opening credits and John O'Donoghue on the first Section 31 directive issued to RTÉ.
OPEN – One Parent Exchange and Network publication "Do the poor pay more?" PDF document, at page 34

Conversations with Eamon Dunphy - Bill O'Herlihy, 9 February 2008 MP3 file, beginning at 5 minutes 55 seconds.
{{RTÉ News and Current Affairs 1960s Irish television series 1970s Irish television series 1966 Irish television series debuts 1976 Irish television series endings Irish television news shows RTÉ News and Current Affairs RTÉ original programming