Members of the deaf community are to protest outside RTÉ’s Dublin and Cork offices on Thursday.
The demonstrations are being held in response to how RTÉ covered the first public performance of the newly translated Irish Sign Language (ISL) version of Amhrán na bhFiann at last Sunday week’s All-Ireland hurling final at Croke Park, and parts of the pope’s visit last weekend.
A group called the Stop Hiding ISL Campaign said RTE did not show the ISL version of the national anthem on screen for long enough, and did not have enough representation of it during televised coverage of the papal visit.
“We felt excluded, unable to see our national anthem - unable to fully experience this moment, watching it live with Irish men and women from the four corners of the nation,” the group said in a statment.
“What should have been an historic moment for the deaf community and all the people of Ireland, to share the first ever ISL national anthem performed in Croke Park, was taken away from us.”
The protestors said they would call for RTÉ to broadcast the full ISL performance of the national anthem during the All-Ireland football final on Sunday.
Organisers of the protest plan to hand a petition to RTÉ and speak to the broadcaster’s director general Dee Forbes and its head of sport Declan McBennett. They will also perform an ISL rendition of the national anthem at the protest.
RTÉ has said it was not possible for it to provide sign language interpretation of its coverage of the visit of Pope Francis.
A spokesman for RTÉ said that ISL is often difficult to capture satisfactorily for home viewers. As host broadcaster for the papal visit, RTÉ was providing a “feed” to other broadcasters around the globe and there were a number of languages other than English in use.