Ireland could be seeing same-sex couples taking part in the Angelus as part of new proposals.



RTÉ announced yesterday it was revamping the traditional Angelus that has been running for more than half a century.

The national broadcaster has released a new set of films of people pausing to reflect during the Angelus - which include a sand sculptor, a baker, a blacksmith, a book binder and a gardner.

The films are from filmmakers and artists from across Ireland.

They were shot across Ireland, from the Islandbridge memorial in Dublin to the Holy Well at Tobernalt in Co Sligo.

There will be six in total and they will be shown in a daily rotation.

They will also introduce a 'People's Angelus' on a Friday, with footage sent in from the public.

It is believed hundreds of submissions have already been received from schools and colleges.

The head of religious programmes at RTÉ, Roger Childs, says although the footage will change, the chimes will stay.

"The bongs are staying, the bongs are staying" he said.

"First of all there's audience research - and what we found was that a clear majority were in favour of keeping it, saw it as something valuable".

"And by 2-to-1, I think it was, the number of people who wanted to get rid of the bongs were outnumbered by those who wanted to keep them and were quite strong on it".

"Given that this is a unique Irish tradition that's older than I am, I thought 'let's not be in a rush to change it - and if we are going to change it let's try and do it creatively and do it for something better" he added.

And he told Newstalk Lunchtime he has spoken to many diverse groups about its content - and same-sex couples could feature under the new proposals.