You never know when you'll end up in the bag

Siun Nic Gearailt is a news reporter with the Irish-language television service, Teilifis na Gaeilge

Siun Nic Gearailt is a news reporter with the Irish-language television service, Teilifis na Gaeilge.A typical day involves getting the news as early as you can. Of course you don't have to be at work until 10.30 a.m., but you'll hear a lot of news on the radio between 7.30 and 9.30 a.m.On a normal day in Baile na hAbhainn you get your story from the editor, make a few phone calls, tell your cameraman what the story is about and drive to your first location. That's if we're working in or around Galway.If you have to go to Limerick, Kerry or Clare, you get your story, make one phone call and get out as quickly as possible. Mobile phones are essential. You make all your phone calls on the way and try to get Irish speakers in whatever company you want to do your interviews.There are parts of the country where you are always going to get problems. It's going to be easier in areas like Galway, Kerry and Donegal, but having said that, people are so willing to co-operate.People who wouldn't have spoken Irish in a very long time will say, "give me an hour and I'll have something ready for you".Originally from Kerry, I am a native Irish speaker. That would not be the case with everyone in TnaG, but I think all of us went to an all-Irish school at some stage, so the standard of Irish is pretty good.The average age is 24. We're all Iriseoiri Fise, or video journalists, because we can edit on computers as well as recording. The system is the most modern in Europe.We all drive with the cameramen. We drive Land Rovers and they carry the editing suites. If we're very far from home and it's a happening story - for instance, if we're in Thurles - it's a lot quiet to get to, say, Limerick. We will edit the package by the side of the road in the van and link it from the RTE studios there.I wear neutral colours, as in jackets, with dark and bright colours. You don't know what you're going to end up doing, so I'll always have a raincoat and wellingtons in may car - because you can at any time end up in the bog when you're working with TnaG. You go through an awful lot of clothes. There is a clothing allowance but it's very small.We never finish before 10 p.m. we work a seven-day fortnight. For one week you work Monday and Tuesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The next week you only work two days. You work Wednesday and Thursday, so you get a lot of time to rest. But of course you can be called in on any of those days off.I think everyone was nervous when we started off first. The first night there were so many people around, from RTE, the newspapers and everywhere, we didn't have time to think. But the day that I don't have any butterflies in my stomach will be the day I'll finish.One problem is that, by our main 10 p.m. news bulletin, all the news has gone out on RTE already, and we don't want to have the same thing again - so we try to cover the national stories in a different way. We look on the human side perhaps, or cover the national story in the region. The TnaG motto is "suil eile", or a different perspective.In TnaG there is a sense of family. Everyone gets on really, really well. We probably socialise together too often afterwards. Sometimes you sit back and say "where is my other life?"