THE TEAM at Teilifis na Gaeilge are gearing up towards Oiche Shamhna later this year when the new all-Irish channel will go on the air for the first time. It will be a historic night. One of the jewels in its scheduling crown is expected to be its feast of new drama.

Viewers will be treated to fresh material from a range of new and relatively unknown writers. To date the line-up includes a series of half-hour love stories, a six part sit-com about undertakers and a daily soap called Ros na Run.

Anne McCabe, one of the two commissioning editors at T na G, says that Ros na Run at £2.5 million "is the biggest commission ever in the independent sector". A team of eight writers, who have already been culled from a series of writing workshops, will write 30 hours of Ros na Run The series is set to go into production within a few months.

The love stories, which will be screened in a drama slot after 9 o'clock on the new channel, are already in production with individual budgets varying from £37,000 to £55,000. McCabe says that the air of excitement and anticipation at the station is growing steadily.

"When I came on board I wanted to start doing short drama to give new writers and directors a chance," says McCabe, who is responsible for drama at T na G.

"There were 30 scripts when I arrived on my desk. Not all of them were of the same quality... What came in were good stories that weren't directly related to the Gaeltacht."

The scripts she chose are "stories about people, they are all contemporary, not flashbacks, not inward looking but modern and forward looking, so that was good. They're universal. You know a good story when you see it. There aren't that many around. There's a lot of humour in some of them which is also a good thing". These new dramas are "love stories with a difference. One is a black comedy", she adds.

The sit-com set in Co Donegal, commissioned by commissioning editor, Micheal O'Meallaigh, is about two brothers who are trying to set up a crematorium. It is a very black, off-beat comedy about an undertakers' shop. There are lots of visual gags involving coffins and the like. Niall Mac Eachmharcaigh, the writer from Rann na Feirste in Co Donegal, says we've all been waiting for T na G for years and we are doing our best trying to get the best programmes on screen

"In one regard we are taking a risk on new writers and new directors because the whole area has to be developed. It's all virgin territory, says McCabe. Looking back over the past year she explains that there was never a shortage of writers or talent. The scripts were sent, she says, by the people who submitted them "mostly off their own bat" and also they came from production companies in the Gaeltachts who got people to write them.

FRANK KIRKE, from Millstreet, Co Cork, a primary schoolteacher in Naas, wrote Spastoireacht last year specifically for Teilifis na Gaeilge. It will be filmed in April. "Everyone is very enthusiastic about it," says a delighted Kirke. Dairina Ni Chinneide, the film's producer, pushed and encouraged him to write over a number of years. She is the catalyst," he says.

Kirke asked Jack Conroy, an internationally renowned cinematographer who worked on The Field and My Left Foot, to read an English version of his script. Conroy liked it so much that he offered to direct the film. It is to be shot in west Kerry in a number of places in and around the area where Ryan's Daughter was shot, says Kirke.

The story is about two characters from the Gaeltacht who invent a UFO scam in order to attract more tourists to the area. There is a love interest too. "I would be pretty au fait with people from the Gaeltacht, from being down there quite often. I write comedy mostly. I have seen a lot of characters in the Gaeltacht and know how cute they can be.

"I have about eight or nine plays written," he explains. To date they've been lying in a drawer at home "but I'm dusting them off now lately".

The interest shown by Teilifis na Gaeilge, as well as the financial backing, has given him great encouragement. "It has put an urgency into my writing that time is short so write now or forever hold your peace."

The consultative process which is part and parcel of film-making has been educational for him and not in any way painful or inhibiting. He is working closely with the director, the producer and Aine O'Connor, the script editor. "I feel great about it. It tells me how good or bad my writing is. It's educating me for the next one. It's not frightening me at all. It's necessary. I suppose it's business."

Another young writer, Diarmuid de Faoite, from Ennis in Co Clare, has also been backed by T na G. His half-hour film is already in the can. The story, which he wrote and directed, is called Une Histoire d'Amour. It was shot in and around Galway at Christmas time. Many of the actors are new faces who were found through doing auditions with student theatre groups. De Faoite is an actor who appeared in a number of RTE series. He first wrote his script when he was working as a writer/actor for the program me Ecu Ecu. It was to go out on Valentine's Day but had to be shelved because of budgetary problems.

The story is about a French girl who meets an Irish boy, they fall in love, they part but meet again five years later in Paris. The theme, says de Faoite, is that "people click, not on a race or a religious basis but on a much deeper, personal level. And also people's personalities change over time.

"The most romantic side of it is that it takes him about two days to put his arm around her," he says. "It's very much about first love.

"It's a huge compliment and a huge morale boost when a new TV station accepts a script," he says. "That's really when you begin to realise maybe I can write."

MARIA Ni Mhurchu, a part-time teacher and secretary from Baile Iochtarach in Dingle, who spent a year writing a script, was equally overjoyed and encouraged when her script caught the imagination of Anne McCabe and Micheal O'Meallaigh.

Bail O Dhia ar Xanax is a story about a manic depressive who finds love. It was filmed last month in Dingle and Dublin under the direction of Ger Philpott with Hilary McLoughlin as producer. "Yes, it has a happy ending," admits Maria Ni Mhurchu. "There's plenty of passion and a sex scene in the back of a truck... I've started another one now it's based in UCG where I went myself." Without the backing of the local film production company, Dovinia Teo, which grew out of the local drama group Aisteoiri Bhreanainn, she believes she would never have submitted her script.

There are "more than three" other dramas in development at the moment, says McCabe. She points out that there will be plenty of opportunities for directors, writers and actors. A number of co-productions with BBC Scotland and BBC Wales and possibly two feature length co-productions are also being planned.