Elaine Breen and her companion know well what can happen when they leave it too late to go home from a night out in Dublin. They stayed in a club until 1.30 a.m. one night and, after failing to get a taxi to Malahide, started to walk. By 3 a.m. they were picked up - in Clontarf.
Ms Breen was among a group of people standing at the College Green taxi rank at 12.30 a.m. yesterday, waiting for a taxi home. One upshot of the dearth of taxis late at night is that getting home has become a major preoccupation for many people who socialise in the city centre.
Mr Brian Smart, from Raheny, who was also waiting in the College Green queue, said: "It's been on our minds since we came out . . . It was the first thing we spoke about before coming out tonight and we left the pub early because of it."
Queues had formed at city-centre taxi ranks by midnight on Saturday, but things moved briskly as taxis pulled up every couple of minutes. By 1 a.m., however, the story was different.
Ms Donna O'Reilly and Mr Stephen Mullin, who live in Lucan, left a relative's birthday party early in the hope it would be easier to get a taxi. But there were already about 60 people in the queue at St Stephen's Green.
"I love town, but it's got to the stage where I don't go out," said Ms O'Reilly. If they do go out they make sure they leave early. "If you're clipping two o'clock you're in trouble," said Mr Mullin.
Then there is the problem with Lucan. "Since we moved out to Lucan, it's been attitude. They [taxi-drivers] just whinge about going out that far," Mr Mullin said.
Mr Michael Gueil, from Kilbarrack, has a strategy of going into town early and leaving early, or going in late and leaving late. But at the Abbey Street queue at 2 a.m., with about 80 people ahead of him, the strategy didn't appear to be working.
Mr Andrew Murphy also left the pub early to queue. "If you leave it any later you are less hopeful about getting anything," he said. Even so, he said, he has often left early only to find huge queues and choosing instead to walk home to Sandymount.
As time passed early yesterday, the waiting time got longer and the taxi queues became more unpleasant. A couple at the top of the Abbey Street queue had walked around the telephone box to get into the next taxi when those behind accused them of jumping ahead.
At the St Stephen's Green rank, some people lay slumped against the railings while others struggled to stay upright as the time passed slowly. A man and a woman in the middle of the queue exchanged angry words.
Visitors were surprised at the length of the queues and the fact that by 2.30 a.m. they seemed to have stopped moving. Ms Eithne Grimley, from Armagh, said she had never seen a taxi queue as big as the O'Connell Street one. "In Belfast it takes about five minutes to get a cab."
She asked - in a doubtful tone - if there was a number she could ring that would get a taxi to her more quickly.
By 3 a.m. there were about 100 people standing at each of the four main taxi ranks in the city centre. Some defiant clubbers, who had just poured out of clubs, started to walk home. They stretched out their arms at every passing vehicle, but few stopped. For some it would have been a long walk home.