shop window, cernobbio, italy nikon coolpix 3100

happy hallowe’en

Oh Happy Happy Days……..

iranrod eireann has put up a
news alert on its website today to say that online reservations for certain friday services can now be made.

this is great news for all those harassed friday commuters. i have to wonder though why it is only available on fridays. if they can offer a service on friday, why not on other days?

one would think that reservations were something that were always in place on irish trains. unfortunately, this is not the case. in the UK you can’t get on a train without a reservation in certain cases. in ireland, everybody is welcome. many a time i have seen people sitting in loos, in the dining car, on their knapsacks between carriages. unpleasant for all not to mention dangerous for all. perhaps they will go the extra mile and insist on reservations for these over crowded friday services. it would be in everybody’s interests.

this morning came the news that bewley’s are to close their grafton street and westmoreland street coffee shops. they cited various reasons. four million euro in losses, high rent and rates, the smoking ban etc. whatever the reasons, it is such a shame. some of my earliest memories of dublin are attached to bewley’s. i remember sitting by the fire over cups of milky white coffee long before the words “latte” and “cappuchino” were common parlance in ireland. in bewley’s i imagined ireland’s literary and historical figures sitting, drinking their tea or coffee, reading, writing. bewley’s was a dublin institution. it was staffed by dubs, impatient to get an order out of a shy cork girl. it was always full of such a mix. school girls, schoolboys, trinity students and dubs. from where i have no idea. but they were dubs. you could spend hours in there enjoying a slice of dublin life. dublin as it was before the celtic tiger. westmoreland street won’t be the same without it.