By 6pm this evening the entire island of Ireland will have a good idea about their holiday plans for next summer as the Euro 2016 draw takes place in Paris (5pm Irish time).
The O'Neill's of Martin and Michael will learn their team's fate as both the Republic and Northern Ireland compete together for the first time in a major international football tournament.
Both Irish sides are nestling side by side in lowly Pot 4, which means that tough opposition is guaranteed for next summer's championships.
The draw is live here on RTÉ2 and the RTÉ Player as Darragh Moloney will be joined by Brian Kerr and Richie Sadlier, with Tony O'Donoghue in Paris, while Ed Leahy will be live blogging the draw on RTE.ie and the RTÉ News Now App from 5pm.
The hour-long ceremony will be presented by former players and European Championship winners Bixente Lizarazu from France and Dutch legend Ruud Gullit.
The draws will be made by four other European Championship winners, David Trezeguet (France), Oliver Bierhoff (Germany), Angelos Charisteas (Greece) and Antonín Panenka (Czech Republic).
The teams have been seeded based on their UEFA co-efficient into four pots and as mentioned the Irish sides will be in Pot 4, while France, as hosts, have already been assigned to Group A and the position A1.
The draws will commence at 5.23pm with Pot 4 due to be drawn at 5.32pm.
The breakdown of the four pots is as follows:
Pot 1: France*, Spain, Germany, England, Portugal, Belgium
Pot 2 : Italy, Russia, Switzerland, Austria, Croatia, Ukraine
Pot 3: Czech Republic, Sweden, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Hungary
Pot 4: Turkey, Republic of Ireland, Iceland, Wales, Albania, Northern Ireland
The teams will be drawn into six groups of four teams each (Groups A to F). The draw starts with Pot 1. One ball is drawn and the team is assigned to Group B, position B1; a second ball is drawn and the team is assigned to Group C, position C1; and so on till Group F.
The draw continues with Pot 4 which is Ireland’s pot. A ball is drawn and the team assigned to Group A. The position of this team within Group A is also determined by draw. A second ball is drawn from Pot 4 and assigned to Group B; again the position within Group B is drawn. The procedure is repeated for all teams in Pot 4.
The draw continues with Pot 3 and concludes with Pot 2. Each time a team is drawn the position within the relevant group is determined by draw. The top two in each plus the four best third-placed sides advance to the knock-out phase.
The finals will start on Friday, 10 June, with the final taking place at Stade de France on Sunday, 10 July.
