[1] It is co-presented by Sharon Tobin and David McCullagh, the former co-presenter of current affairs programme Prime Time.

Teilifís Éireann made its first news broadcast at 6:00pm on 1 January 1962,[citation needed] the first day of full programming for the new television station.

The ten-minute bulletin was read by Charles Mitchel, who remained as RTÉ's chief television newsreader until his retirement in 1984.

A year after its launch, the early evening bulletin was moved to 5.50 pm to accommodate a new weeknight current affairs programme called Broadsheet, which provided more detailed analysis and reportage on the issues of the day.

In September 1964, the 5.50 pm news became part of a new 40-minute magazine programme called Newsbeat, which featured a greater emphasis on off-beat regional stories and satire.

Newsbeat was broadcast for the final time on 11 June 1971 with News returned to its original 6 pm slot but reduced to a short five-minute bulletin.

The early evening bulletin expanded to 15 minutes in October 1972 and change timeslots on several occasions to suit various programming.

In January 1975, RTÉ introduced a news summary for the deaf and hard of hearing to the early evening bulletin.

The programme's first anchors were former political correspondent Seán Duignan and long-standing newsreader Eileen Dunne (replaced two years later by Anne Doyle).

Seeking to deny that he had ever been part of unsuccessful efforts to force President Hillery to refuse a parliamentary dissolution in a way that would help Lenihan's party get back into power (claims he himself had made in an on-the-record taped interview recorded some months earlier), Lenihan tried to stare into the camera and told viewers that "on mature recollection" his earlier version was wrong and that he had made no phone calls to the presidential residence to put pressure on the President.

On Monday 8 January 2018, Caitríona Perry and Keelin Shanley began presenting the programme for the first time, with minor formatting changes.

[10] It is unknown if RTÉ would move its bulletin back one minute to 6 pm when the programme would compete for viewers at the same time as other stations.