The ri ra, craic agus ruille buille is unbridled. All the hip and happening people from TG4, where the average age is 27, converge on the Round Room in the Mansion House to celebrate. They're here to salute the station's autumn schedule. The look favoured by many of the stars is that of the Chicago mobster. "The mob's moll!" jokes Aoife Ni Thuairisg, a weather presenter and, for this afternoon, Mistress of Ceremonies, looking down at her own black outfit, which she has topped off with a black trilby. Blathnaid Ni Chofaigh also looks sharp in a pin-stripe trouser suit. Yes, but more importantly, "it's hip to be in current affairs", she says, adding that she'll be co-presenting with Sorcha Ni Mhonachain a new live programme, called Sin E, on Monday nights. "We're all very happy," says Cilian Fennell, TG4's head of programmes, about the team. He used to be in RTE, but he's delighted to be back home in the west. Doesn't miss Dublin at all. His look? Open-necked shirt, jacket - it's the muted mobster look - kind of like someone in The Sopranos . . . but without the belly, we hasten to add.
No-one will comment on the hormones that must be whizzing around the studios down at headquarters in Baile na hAbhann in Co Galway, what with everyone being so young. Ailbhe O Monachain, from Gweedore in Donegal, the station's newsreader, who's been there since it started broadcasting in 1996, is coy about the fun they must have. "Ni feidir e sin a choisc, bionn daoine mor le cheile," he admits. Loosely translated: "You can't avoid it, people become involved." Tomas O Ceallaigh, a producer/editor at TG4, is not distracted by any talk of hormones. "Ni thuigimse na cursai sin anois, an dtuigeann tu? Ach coinnionn se og sinn," he adds. And indeed, he does look well on it.
Tom O Brannagain, of Telly Bingo fame on RTE, who'll be presenting a new quiz show on TG4 also, is lost for words. Padraig O Mealoid, who will present a boxing programme, An Dorn Ceiltreach, says: "Ta mo hormones marbh ag TG4." John Murray, a producer with Crossing the Line Films, is just back from a spell with the Nenets of Siberia, where he filmed them undertaking one of the world's last great nomadic journeys. A snippet from this documentary, which will be screened before Christmas, is shown during a TG4 montage, a taster of what's to come. In the film, we see a woman enjoying a hunk of red, raw meat. Yes, Murray recalls, selecting the navarin of Wicklow lamb with sugarsnap peas and red onion in a rosemary and thyme sauce, he did eat it himself when it was still warm after the kill. Mmmm, very tasty. Funny, some suddenly opt for the vegetarian choice at the meal.