HALLOWE'EN came early for dozens of schoolchildren in Connemara last night with a spectacular fireworks display to celebrate the arrival of Teilifis na Gaeilge.
The new television station does not officially start broadcasting until 8 o'clock tonight, but such niceties were of little concern to the children in costume who screamed and waved their hands in the air as they danced around the bonfire outside TnaG's headquarters in Baile na hAbhann.
Traffic slowed to a crawl and then stopped as a helicopter came thudding in low over a small lake, passed through the smoke from a burning TnaG logo and hovered a few yards away from the bonfire.
Inside the building, technicians, journalists and assorted television people continued frantic last minute preparations for going on air. The last of the carpets was laid early yesterday as electricians were working on some of the 110 miles of cable which crisscrosses the building under floors and ceilings.
RTE Radio marks the occasion later today by broadcasting the News at One live from Baile na hAbhann.
In the news studio, some of the 17 journalists - average age 23 1/2 - who will compile and edit TnaG's news were working on mock bulletins, practising live interviews with interviewees in Dublin and Dingle, or preparing to "download" footage by satellite from Eurovision News in Geneva.
The quietest room in the building was the office of the ceannasai, Mr Cathal Goan, who has barely had a day off since he started working on the project two years ago. Flowers and messages of support from broadcasters at home and abroad were piled on his desk, including one from Padraig Seoigbe, who presents a programme in Irish on SBS publicservice radio in Sydney, Australia.
. TnaG has a nationwide UHF transmission system and is available to viewers with UHF aerials who tune their television sets to the relevant channel number for their area. It is also available on cable as part of the basic service from Cablelink (the channel number varies according to area).
In the Dublin area, viewers who receive their television signals from the air should tune their television sets to channel 5, while viewers in south Leinster should tune to channel 23. For Munster, the relevant channel number is 31, while channel 68 covers most of Galway and south Mayo and channel 63 covers north Connacht.
Viewers in Donegal, Derry and Tyrone should tune to channel 33, while Louth and east Ulster is covered by channel 68. Transmission from Cairn Hill, which cover the midlands, is on channel 50.
People who receive their broadcasts from one of the 51 local transmitters around the country will need to tune to the channel designated for their area.
For further information, contact 1850 584 584.