Thousands of people are expected to attend the NYE festival in Dublin tonight, where The Gathering will officially be launched.

The Countdown Concert, procession of light and fireworks display will mark the start of a year of events aimed at encouraging tourists to visit Ireland.

70 international journalists have arrived in Dublin to cover the event, which is to be broadcast live.

 You can watch a video on The Gathering, and what it means to be Irish, below:

Ciara Sugrue of Fáilte Ireland has shrugged of recent bad publicity regarding The Gathering.

She said that some of the comments have actually helped to promote the event on an even larger scale: