Halloween dominates weekend

Halloween fever hits Ireland this weekend with a wide range of activities planned across the country.

In Portlaoise, the Trick 'R Street Halloween Festival gets under way tomorrow with a parade from County Hall at 7pm. Participants will march through the town arriving at O'Moore Park, just off Father Brown Avenue, where a concert and fireworks display will take place. Traffic disruption is expected.

Halloween festivals will also tale place tomorrow in Cork City where the Dragon of Shandon Halloween Parade will take place tomorrow evening. The Dead of Night Halloween Festival is being held at Connolly Barracks in Longford.

In Donegal, the Halloween Madness Festival takes place from tomorrow to Monday and features a fireworks display at Dunfanaghy Pier on Sunday evening.

In Dublin, traffic is expected to be busy around the RDS this weekend as the Knitting & Stitching Show will take place in Main Hall until Sunday. In addition Leinster will play the Cardiff Blues in the Magners League at the RDS Arena tomorrow evening.

Munster will play Ulster in the Magners League at Thomond Park in Limerick at 5pm tomorrow, while there will be evening events at the Royal Theatre, Castlebar tomorrow and Sunday. 

There is plenty of horse racing on offer over the weekend, beginning at Naas where the first race goes off at 1.05pm. Racing will take place at Leopardstown on Sunday with the first race at 12.35pm and the last at 4.15pm. In Cork, there will be a race meet at Mallow on Sunday afternoon.

It will be mainly dry at first tomorrow but cloud and rain will spread northwards to affect all parts of the country later. The rain will be heavy over the southern half of the country and may lead to localised flooding.

There will be further heavy rain in many parts of the country on Sunday morning but a clearance to sunshine and showers will follow by early afternoon.

Disruption and delays to train services on nearly all mainline rail routes out of Dublin, as well as commuter services to Kildare, will take place from 8p.m, today, until 11p.m. Sunday.

Delays of up to 45 minutes for services to Waterford, Cork, Kerry, Limerick, Galway and Westport are forecast due to works in the vicinity of Heuston Station. Bus transfers will be in place between Heuston and Portlaoise, Portarlington, Thurles and Carlow.

All commuter rail services between Heuston and Kildare have been cancelled for the weekend. Delays are also expected on the Sligo line as engineering work takes place near Dromod, Co Leitrim. A bus transfer is in operation between Dromod and Sligo.

The Northern line remains closed pending the reopening of the Malahide Viaduct and intending passengers are advised to visit www.irishrail.ie for further details.