RTÉ to broadcast midnight Mass live from Sydney

Midnight Mass on RTÉ One television on Christmas Eve will be broadcast live from Sydney, Australia, at 11.10pm.

It will be celebrated in the courtyard of Hyde Park Barracks, Sydney, a place of detention for more than 25,000 Irish convicts in the early 19th century.

In the late 1840s it became a female immigration depot for 4, 200 Irish girls orphaned by the Famine. The distinctive Famine monument in the Barracks courtyard will feature in the programme.

The Mass will be broadcast at prime time on Christmas Day across Australia by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and the celebrant will be Bishop Donal McKeown, Auxiliary Bishop of Down and Connor.

President Mary McAleese will send a message and Christmas greeting, to be broadcast during the Mass, as will Marie Bashir, Governor of New South Wales.

RTÉ television's Editor of Religious Programmes Fr Dermod McCarthy said of the Christmas Day Mass: "In terms of the scale and significance of the ceremony and joint broadcast, the event is unparalleled in its high-profile celebration of the Irish contribution to Australia."

He also said that this year's Christmas religious programming on RTÉ would give particular recognition to those who are "away from home".

Christmas morning Mass from Dublin will honour the contribution being made by Ireland's immigrant community, and Midnight Mass from Sydney will celebrate the contribution made by Irish emigrants abroad, he said.

Fr Brian Moore will celebrate Christmas morning Mass at St Peter's Church, Phibsboro, Dublin, with a congregation which will include representatives from the Polish, Indian, African and Brazilian communities in Ireland. It will be broadcast from 11.35am.

There will be a Church of Ireland Christmas Day Service on RTÉ One at 10.15am. Led by the Rev Wilbert Gourley, it will be from the High School in Dublin's Rathgar.

Christmas Day greetings from the Catholic and Church of Ireland Primates, Archbishop Seán Brady and Archbishop Robin Eames, will be broadcast on RTÉ One at 3.10pm. It will be Archbishop Eames's last Christmas message from the See of Armagh as he retires on December 31st.

RTÉ's annual Carols programme marks the start of Christmas for many and this year it will be broadcast on Christmas Eve at 6.25pm from All Hallows College Chapel, Dublin, and will feature more than 200 singers. Minister for Education Mary Hanafin will be among the readers.

There will be a Christmas Eve Presbyterian Service on RTÉ One, at 11.15am. It will be led by Jonathan Rea who will be joined by members of the New Irish Chamber Choir and Orchestra.