To begin with the programmes will go out for four hours or so a day.
Nobody is sure how many and to what extent Irish people speak their own language.
A recent census shows that more than 1m of them in a population of 3.7m modestly claim 'some proficiency' in the old tongue while market researchers for the new channel reckon that about 500,000 are 'fluent in Irish or interested in watching programmes in Irish'. Other investigators however are less Gaelic-cheery. More than half of Irish households now have satellite or cable TV-none of them beaming programmes in Irish. Until now Irish enthusiasts have had to rely for Irish-language programmes on Ireland's two overwhelmingly Anglophone national channels. Very occasionally BBC Northern Ireland goes out in Irish too.