The festive season is nearly upon us and Luas is gearing up for it with the introduction of its late night Christmas services this evening.
Starting from tonight green line services will run until 3.30am this evening and tomorrow. Late night red line services do not begin until next weekend and will run until 3am.
In addition to extra services this weekend,
late night Luas will also operate next weekend and on New Year's Eve.
Tickets for the late night services cost €4 from ticket machines and €3.80 for smartcard holders.
Security personnel will be on every late night Luas service to ensure revellers get home safely.
For those who are hitting the town this weekend there are plenty of activities on including Kings Of Leon at the O2 in Dublin tomorrow night, Leftfield at Tripod, the highly-rated singer-songwriter Nina Nastasia at The Workman's Club and the Coronas at the Olympia.
Further afield there are also gigs from the Frames in Belfast, the Pogues in Killarney and St Etienne in Kilkenny.
On a different note entirely, the Hallelujah concerts, which are billed as the largest concert series in the world, is on at the RDS.
The panto season kicks off in earnest this weekend with Beauty and the Beast at the Tivoli Theatre, Aladdin at the Gaiety, both in Dublin. Jack and the Beanstalk and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs are on in Belfast, while Cinderella is at the Moat Theatre in Naas, Co Kildare and Sleeping Beauty is at the Theatre Royal in Waterford.
Elsewhere, the Custard Pie Puppet company will be performing Rudolf and the Ice Queen at the Cowshed Theatre, Farmleigh House on Sunday with new puppeteer Doireann Ni Chorragain of Fair City fame. Admission is free.
If you’re looking for a way to cheer yourself up after a week of increasingly depressing economic news, you could do worse than check out the Dublin Docklands Christmas market with its live entertainment, festive refreshments and chalets filled with last minute – and for most of us, let’s be honest, first minute – Christmas present ideas.
While you wander the stalls tomorrow sipping from a steaming mug of Jager tea expect to hear Juke Box’ belting out a range of rock and roll standards after which Irish dance group Damhsa will give it a whirl. Sunday sees soul band Mojito get their funk on for shoppers before Damhsa come back for a final holiday hooley.
Market stalls will be selling decorations and gifts as well as hot cherry and apple punch, hot chocolate, mulled Gluewein and eggnog. German food on offer includes Bratwurst, breads, savoury cakes, pies and a whole lot more besides.
It’s a busy weekend of European rugby with all four provinces in action in the Heineken Cup and Amlin Challenge Cup. Ulster Rugby is in a race to have the pitch ready in time to host Bath in their Heineken Cup Pool 4 encounter at Ravenhill.
The pitch at the Belfast venue has been frozen but Ulster Rugby brought in industrial heating fans and are confident tomorrow’s lunchtime kick-off (1.30pm) will go ahead as planned.
Munster host Ospreys at Thomond Park in Limerick (1pm) on Sunday, while Leinster are away to Clermont Auvergne (3pm). In the Amlin Challenge Cup Connacht are away to Harlequins at the Stoop on Sunday (5.45pm).
Sunday’s race meeting at Cork is subject to a 3pm course inspection tomorrow as the steeplechase course is currently frozen, while the hurdle and bumper track is partly frozen.
The Turf Club also announced the safety limit in the hurdle and bumper races – should the meeting go ahead – have been reduced to 18 horses.
Tomorrow’s high profile race meeting at Fairyhouse has already been rescheduled to next Wednesday, while Sunday’s meeting at Navan is cancelled.
In GAA, the re-fixed Leinster SHC and SFC finals have been postponed for a second time due to snow and frozen pitches. The games were originally supposed to be played last weekend and have been postponed once more.
No date has yet been set for the rescheduling of the games but it’s almost certain they will not be played until the New Year.
The Ulster club football finals are scheduled to go ahead as planned after pitch inspections this morning.
The AIB Leinster Club JHC, JFC and IFC finals due to take place this weekend have also been postponed and are due to take place on Sunday, December 19th.
The Munster Council will make a decision on whether Sunday's football final between Nemo Rangers (Cork) and Dr Crokes (Kerry) at Limerick's Gaelic Grounds will go ahead after a pitch inspection tomorrow.
However, the junior hurling final featuring Meelin (Cork) and St. Patrick’s (Tipperary) at 2pm and the junior football final (3.30pm) between St. Mary’s (Kerry) and Bruree (Limerick) at Mallow GAA Grounds have been given the green light.
Met Éireann is forecasting a mixed weekend on the weather front. Tonight will be mostly dry but with some patchy light rain in the north and subzero temperatures in the south
Tomorrow is expected to be dry but cloudy with top temperatures of between 4 and 8 degrees during the day, which will fall to between minus 2 and minus 3 degrees overnight.
Sunday will start cold and frosty but temperatures will reach 4 or 5 degrees during the afternoon.