As spooky season descends on the country this bank holiday weekend, a number of traffic and transport diversions are in place.
The Dublin marathon, Ireland’s largest 26.2-mile race, will return to the streets of the capital on Sunday, with a number of road closures in place as result.
The weather for the weekend is set to be generally unsettled with spells of rain and showers.
A status yellow rain warning has been issued for Carlow, Kilkenny, Wexford and Wicklow between 5pm on Saturday and 4am on Sunday. Met Éireann said people in those counties could expect possible flooding, difficult travel conditions and potential disruption to outdoor events.
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Overall, Saturday will have sunny spells and showers, some of which will be heavy with the chance of thunderstorms and spot flooding. Tides will be very high along all coasts, increasing the risk of coastal flooding.
It will be cloudy and wet for most of Sunday morning with fog lingering in places. The fog will clear through Monday morning, resulting in another day of sunny spells and showers, some heavy with thunderstorms and spot flooding possible.
Traffic diversions for the Dublin Marathon will vary on Sunday as the race proceeds, but pedestrian access will remain.
South city traffic from Stillorgan Road wishing to access the city centre will be diverted via Mount Merrion Avenue, Rock Road, Merrion Gates, Strand Road, Beach Road, Irishtown Road, Ringsend Road and Pearse Street.
North city traffic from Finglas Road and Ballymun Road, wishing to access the city centre will be diverted via Whitworth Road, Dorset Street and Gardiner Street.
Between 8.45am and 16.45pm on Sunday, additional temporary road closures will take place along the Marathon route in Phoenix Park, Castleknock Road, College Road, Tower Road, Knockmaroon Road, Inchicore Road, Drimnagh Road, Templeogue Road and Roebuck Road.
Separately, Irish Rail has confirmed there will be changes to Dart services over the weekend due to engineering works, with the Dart only operating between Dublin Connolly and Bray/Greystones.
The following Dart stations are closed for train services: Malahide, Portmarnock, Clongriffin, Howth Junction and Donaghmede, Bayside, Sutton, Howth, Kilbarrack, Raheny, Harmonstown, Killester and Clontarf Road.
Dublin Bus will accept rail tickets in affected areas, Irish Rail said.
Dublin Airport is also forecast to have a busy weekend, with around 405,000 passengers set to travel through the transport hub over the October bank holiday.
Over the mid-term break, it is expected that just under one million passengers (950,000) will travel through Dublin Airport, a spokeswoman said, with London and Amsterdam the most popular European destinations and New York and Chicago the most popular transatlantic destinations.
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Elsewhere in the country, Shannon Airport is expecting record-breaking passenger numbers with more than 44,000 people forecast to take off from the airport throughout the October holiday period.
Mary Considine, chief executive of the Shannon Airport Group, said more people are travelling this October bank holiday compared to last year and that airport passenger traffic is also up by 23 per cent for the same period in 2019.
“This is bolstered by the fact that for our winter schedule, we have added 200 extra flights throughout the school holidays breaks in October, Christmas and Easter to accommodate those well-deserved family getaways,” she added.
