The wizard has landed. At a warehouse on the outskirts of Dublin, 110,000 copies of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows were yesterday being loaded into vans and trucks in preparation for tonight's minute-past-midnight release.
"I'm up to my neck in it," said David O'Callaghan, childrens' books buyer at Eason.
Eason is responsible for distributing 110,000 of the estimated 250,000 Harry Potter books that will be sold in Ireland in the next few days.
"We're working underground," said Mr O'Callaghan. "Well, actually, it's not underground, but it sounds better. The piles of books are above my neck, way above my head.
"They arrived last night and now it's a kind of lull, checking the list, making sure everybody gets it."
Bookstores had been told to expect delivery today, but some copies of the seventh and final book in JK Rowling's series have already arrived at some of the hundreds of locations hosting Harry Potter events tonight.
"Yes, it's here," confirmed Betty Stenson, a librarian at Dublin's Ballyroan Library.
Did she have to place the books under guard, to keep them from staff? "Oh no," she said. "We're very restrained - we're librarians."
Libraries across Ireland are hosting special Harry Potter events. Every magician in the country seems to have been booked for months, and fancy-dress outfit stores are reported to be running low on stock.
Bray library in Co Wicklow is hosting a party from 4pm. They'll have jugglers and a live radio broadcast, but the event sounds small compared to the party planned at the Eason store in Dungarvan, Co Waterford.
"It will be the number one event in the nation," said Pat Whyte of Eason, who estimates that he has spent €25,000 on hiring actors and props and installing giant movie screens.
Over 1,000 people have already paid €20 each for their book and a ticket for the event outside his store, said Mr Whyte, and hundreds more were expected to do so. "I've even had a phone call from someone coming from Dublin," said Anne McAulife, the store's books manager.
At Waterstones in Dawson Street, Dublin, the hundreds of fans expected to queue for their books tonight will be entertained by a wizard, an owl, a wandering minstrel and games.
Fiona Nolan, who is helping organise the Waterstones event, has an emotional involvement in the launch - a late convert to the series, she read the six Harry Potter books in the past year.
"In Hogwarts, JK Rowling just created such a riveting place, an underground world that's so richly detailed.
"She has such a rich imagination - I know that if I was to go back to school, I'd want to go to Hogwarts," she said.
The biggest event in Dublin will probably be at the flagship Eason store on O'Connell Street, where Mr O'Callaghan will be dressed as a werewolf, enjoying the fruits of his labour.
"It's been hard work," he said. Parts of it have been bizarre.
"We've had to sign an embargo, and every customer has signed an embargo, and we send all the signed forms off to an auditor - he's the equivalent of Voldemort - who says things like 'the signature on account number X214 does not match'.
"But it's all worth it when you see 2,500 people in O'Connell Street, dressed up and waiting for their book."
Harry Potter parties will be held tonight at all 42 Eason stores; all branches of Dubray books; and Hughes and Hughes' high-street stores in St Stephen's Green, Santry, Nutgrove, Dún Laoghaire, Swords, Dundalk, Galway, Wexford, Ennis.
Libraries are also celebrating with midnight openings or parties in the next few days in Monaghan, Mayo, Wicklow, Tipperary, Clare, Wexford and Dublin.