Sunshine and showers forecast for Easter bank holiday

The Easter bank holiday weekend will be a mixed bag weather-wise with good spells of sunshine set to be interspersed with showers.

Good Friday will get off to a cloudy start with rain in most places before conditions clear up in the afternoon. Saturday will be dry and cool with highs of 12 degrees and Sunday will be slightly warmer.

Easter Monday looks set to be the warmest day of the weekend with highs of 15 degrees which is good news for Cruinniú na Cásca, a nationwide series of events which is part of the Creative Ireland programme.

Easter weekend is traditionally one of the busiest travel weekends of the year and Dublin Airport expects 340,000 passengers to pass through between Friday and Monday, a 12 per cent increase on the same period last year.

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"Over 2,300 flights are expected to arrive and depart this Easter bank holiday weekend," said airport spokeswoman Siobhán O'Donnell, who added that the sunny Canary Islands and Spanish coastline were the most popular destinations.

Disruption

Expect significant disruption to Iarnród Éireann services over the weekend because of line improvement works. There will be no Dart services north of Connolly Station from 7pm on Good Friday to the end of Sunday with an alternative bus service being laid on.

Trains out of Heuston Station will operate as normal until 1pm on Saturday but after that track repair work between Heuston and Kildare will see bus transfers running to and from stations in Kildare. Rail passengers will be able to continue their journeys from Newbridge and Athy. The restrictions will be lifted on Easter Sunday morning after 10am.

The Good Friday Barndance (now BD) Festival will take place for the last time in its present format as a result of the lifting of licensing restrictions.

The festival was started 10 years ago to compensate for bars and nightclubs being closed on Good Friday. It takes place in different locations in Co Wicklow and guests bring their own alcohol.

All 4,800 tickets for this year's event, which takes place at Glendalough House, have sold out. Joint founder Brian McDermott said the festival would continue and the presence of a licensed bar next year would enhance it .