Locals cry 'Bingo' as bridge opens

It's already dubbed the "Bingo Bridge" by locals, uniting as it does the long-running weekly games in Pearse Street on the southside and Sheriff Street on the north.

But Dublin's newest Liffey crossing was officially named the Seán O'Casey Bridge yesterday when another famous northsider - Taoiseach Bertie Ahern - performed its opening ceremony.

The event would not have been complete without a baptism, and thanks to the decision to erect temporary fountains on either side of the new structure for the ceremony, this was duly achieved.

When Mr Ahern led the inaugural walkover, a sea-borne breeze ensured it wasn't just the bridge that got a wetting. The fountains had to be turned down on the up-wind side before the walk-over could be safely completed. The Taoiseach was joined for the event by Seán O'Casey's daughter, Shivaun, and politicians including Minister for the Environment Dick Roche, Tony Gregory TD, Dublin Lord Mayor Catherine Byrne, and Labour councillor Aodhan Ó Riordáin.

The bridge was given a suitably theatrical debut, with a specially commissioned show by the CoisCéim dance company including a "passionate pas de deux" between long-lost lovers reunited.

Actor Barry McGovern performed excerpts from O'Casey's play Red Roses for Me, suggested by the playwright's daughter for its many references to the Liffey. Single red roses were handed to the first wave of pedestrians crossing the bridge.

Playing down the implications for the Bingo-playing community, Mr Ahern said the bridge would be a "vital link between the southside of the city - Merrion Square and St Stephen's Green - and the vibrant Docklands area."

He also appealed to dockside firms and agencies at the ceremony to give preference to local people, where possible, when hiring. There were many skilled people in the area who were unemployed or underemployed, he said, and "it doesn't wash with any of us that they can't be employed".