The viewers like her. On RTE television news, her calm and concise reports of the most complicated and harrowing legal cases have made her a household name. Her colleagues like her. "She was in that job for 10 years, " says one. "No one had stuck it out for more than two years before that."

In the Four Courts, she was known for her kindness to young reporters, and to interlopers who were sent down to cover the occasional, sensational trial . . . not always the case with journalists who cover a specific beat. "She seems quite formal and reserved on camera, " said one man, "but in fact she is very down to earth."

Actually, Wilson has considerable charm, which is felt equally by women and men.

This appeal to both sexes is vital if she is to succeed in the radio battle she now enters, currently dominated by a strong element of blokeishness in the evening drivetime slot. In RTE, everyone knew that, when Rachel English stood down as presenter of Five Seven Live, her successor would be female. Because the audiences of Mary Wilson's new rivals, George Hook on Newstalk and Matt Cooper on TodayFM, are overwhelmingly male.

When she left the Four Courts, Judge Barry White bade her farewell from the judicial bench of the High Court. Her farewell party was attended by senior judges and barristers who, as they would be well aware, are not half as famous as she is.

Now Wilson stands on the brink on a new type of fame.

Her new job brings her into the limelight and a fiercely competitive market. In radio, the only times that matter are morning and evening, because that is when the money gets made . . . from advertising.

How much concrete support RTE is going to give Wilson in her new role is a moot point. At the time of writing, it was impossible to ascertain if the budget for the news section of drivetime had been increased. "I don't think so, " said one radio worker darkly.

Unlike the shows fronted by Hook and Cooper, Wilson's will not have a 4.30pm start time. The last half-an-hour of the vital 5-7pm section is given over to sport, with presenter Des Cahill. At 7pm, Dave Fanning, another clever and underused presenter, will then take over. It's a bit confusing. "There was talk that they were going to lose business and sport, " says one insider. "But I don't think that's happening. So the news content of the programme will be down by about 15 minutes."

RTE has so far responded to the increasing pressure from rivals by leaving its news programmes in the hands of competent, low-key professional presenters. English was exactly such a person. On the other hand, Hook will tell Dublin listeners of Newstalk . . . the station is due to go national next month . . . all about his weekend. Both he and Cooper have been featured in extravagant advertising campaigns. How Wilson will feel about being put on the side of buses . . . if that is the RTE plan, and it probably should be . . . is anybody's guess.

Wilson was born to a farming family in Drangan, near Slieve na mBan, in one of the most beautiful parts of Tipperary. Her mother, Josephine, died two years ago. She visits her father, Arthur, regularly.

However, as an old friend puts it, "She was always a country girl with a city disposition."

She played tennis for her boarding school, and is still quite sporty. At the age of only 16, Wilson entered Rathmines College of Commerce, to study journalism, graduating in 1979.

She shared a house with Justine McCarthy, Bernie Ni Fhlatharta, Anne Flaherty and Marese McDonagh. McCarthy, chief features writer of the Irish Independent, is still her best friend.

In a story she tells against herself, it was while at Rathmines that Wilson had her first experience of the Four Courts.

"We went down and there was a murder trial going on . . . very rare in those days, " remembers McCarthy. "It was very hot and airless in the courtroom. The murder weapon, a blood-stained knife, was produced. Mary fainted. She said it was because of the airlessness. Actually it was on that day that we became friends.

Afterwards we went for a drink in the Palace Bar in Fleet Street [a famous watering hole for generations of reporters], because we felt we were real journalists then."

Wilson spent five years working in public relations for Shannon Development, flying to New York on business at a time when such trips were rare. "She was a real whizzkid executive, " remembers McCarthy. "She had a good pensionable job and a good salary."

In 1989, Wilson joined RTE in Cork and began a steady rise through the ranks.

Her beauty automatically made her a candidate for television work. But her calmness under pressure and her hard work guaranteed her a career. Wilson was never a girlie girl. She's a voracious reader, a serious reporter. On the other hand, both friends and colleagues say that, unlike many people who style themselves as serious reporters, she doesn't have a rampant ego. They look forward to her natural warmth being discovered by the nation.

"She has very good judgement and she has shown it over the years, " says Cillian De Paor, managing editor of RTE's television news. In fact, she was a fill-in presenter on radio at the early stages of her career, on Morning Ireland in the early '90s. "I always thought highly of her as a presenter, " says De Paor.

Her Prime Time programme on the shooting of Mayo farmer Padraig Nally last year brought in one of the highest audiences in the programme's history.

Her examination of the case against Nora Wall was driven primarily by Wilson's own news instincts; it won her a Law Society award and the ESB Journalist of the Year award in 2000. However, in the strange world of competitive radio, the fact that she is a well-balanced and competent professional may actually count against her, just as her gender is seen as one of her greatest strengths. "I'd be worried about her capacity for 'light', " said one media analyst.

Whatever happens with the new programme . . . if it really is new . . . most people agree that Mary Wilson's ambitions do not stop here. She is now at the top of her game, and her love of the electronic media seems undimmed. In the future, she may well produce the programmes, as well as, or perhaps instead of, presenting them.

C.V.

Name: Mary Wilson
From: Drangan, south Tipperary. The second of four children, and elder girl
Family: Separated, from RTE sports editor Tony O'Donoghue, one daughter.

Lives in Dalkey
In the news because: After being RTE's legal affairs editor for 10 years, she starts her new job as anchor of Five Seven Live on RTE Radio 1, on 4 September