THERE were a few pookas wandering the hills and bogs of Connemara on Hallowe'en Night, as Teilifis na Gaeilge came on air with fireworks in Baile na hAbhann and a posh bash in the Connemara Coast Hotel.

The RTE executive who chose the Connemara Coast for the official reception must have an ironic sense of history, for it was in the same complex - then called Teach Furbo - that one of the opening shots in the long struggle for TnaG was fired more than 20 years ago.

Local poet Joe Steve O Neachtain recalled the incident with a wry smile, as he surveyed some of the 500 guests at the opening including RTE's director general, Joe Barry and almost all the station's senior management. At the time, the national broadcaster made one of its rare forays into Connemara to record a programme in the Quicksilver quiz series, featuring the inimitable Bunny Carr.

A group of local upstarts, including Joe Steve, infiltrated the audience and disrupted the filming, as a protest against the lack of programmes in Irish on RTE, and also to mark their disgust that the programme was being made in English with no reference to the language of the area.

There were no such protests on Thursday night, and even Gaeltacht firebrand Donneha O hEallaithe was too polite to point out that in the intervening two decades Irish has gone into serious decline in the immediate vicinity of the hotel. There were no visible protests, either, when it was discovered that TnaG was not tuned in on television sets in at least some of the guest rooms in the hotel.

All that was forgotten as Michael D. Higgins raced through his speech as behind him the seconds ticked away on the big screen.

Mairead Ni Nuadhain, series producer for the successful Leargas programme on RTE 1, looked more and more anxious as the big moment drew near. "Ta mo chroi ag bualadh do na daoine istigh," she whispered.

"I'm trying not to cry," said RTE's head of Irish programming, Neasa Ni Chinneide, as the opening sequence finished and the President, Mrs Robinson came on screen. To outsiders it may have looked a bit schmaltzy, but to anyone who cares about the language and has followed the struggle for the TV station it was an emotional moment.

The fireworks and exuberance on screen which followed offered some release for that emotion, but in the heat and press of the besuited crowd at the Connemara Coast it was more difficult. Actor Diarnuid de Faoite heard the opening on Raidio na Gaeltachta on his way to Tigh Chualain, where a less formal celebration was in full swing. He wept quietly in the privacy of his own car, as he drove to the pub in Indreabhan and raised a glass to TnaG.

Further west, on a windswept mountain near Cill Chiarain, a group of people lit a bonfire in memory of a pirate TV broadcast nine years ago that sparked she campaign for TnaG.

Seosamh O Giobuin, a carpenter from Camus, and Meta Bean Ui Mhaille, a community worker from Doire Iorrais, Ros Muc, were among those who risked the wrath of the pookas to remind the revellers in Furbo where it all began.

But the defining moment for the whole evening came when 16 year old Bridin Ni Chonghaile from Baile na hAbhann took to the Tigh Chualain stage. Bridin plays the part of Noirin in TnaG's soap opera, Ros na Run. She looked very ABBA in her shimmering satin top and bellbottoms as she sang Baile an Roba, a lovely old sean nos love song. Where else in the country would you get it?