RTE television broke with a long-running tradition on Good Friday and played the chimes of the Angelus.
In the Catholic tradition, church bells stay silent from Good Friday to the Easter Vigil mass on Saturday.
But an RTE spokeswoman said that as the Angelus broadcasts were not exclusively Catholic, the decision was taken to broadcast the bells this year.
It is believed this year was the first time in 50 years of broadcasting when the bells were heard on RTE on Good Friday and Easter Saturday.
However, due to a glitch in communicating the change in policy, no chimes were broadcast on radio at 6pm on Friday or noon on Saturday.
The Angelus was due to go ahead on Saturday evening on radio, but it was not possible as a Heineken Cup rugby match was being broadcast live.
The station defended the decision taken by its editor of religious programmes, Roger Childs, and management to break with tradition.
"While the Angelus tradition is Catholic in origins, RTE has taken steps to make the Angelus broadcasts, on radio and television, pauses for prayer or reflection which are accessible to all viewers and listeners, regardless of their faith or lack of it," she said.
Prayer
"RTE does not actually broadcast the Angelus prayer itself in these slots, and never has, although Catholics who wish to say the prayer privately are facilitated by the traditional pattern of chimes."
The Angelus was first broadcast by RTE on August 15, 1950, and extended to television in the 1960s.
The broadcasts began as a Holy Year initiative blessed by then Catholic Archbishop of Dublin, John Charles McQuaid, to promote devotion to the Virgin Mary.
In 2009, a new version of the Angelus, with a series of seven visual reflections, began broadcasting.
The images ranged from a working fisherman and a grieving mother to a Zambian office worker.
A spokesman for the Catholic Communications Office said the Catholic Church did not take offence.
"If the national broadcaster broadcast (the Angelus) during Good Friday, that's a matter for the national broadcaster," he said.
The RTE spokeswoman added that RTE is funded by and exists to serve licence-payers of all faiths and none.
"It has a legal mandate to reflect all aspects of the national culture, including, specifically, religious belief and practice," she said.
There have been four formal complaints made in the past, on the grounds that the Angelus broadcasts demonstrate a pro-Catholic bias in the national station.
None of these complaints was upheld.