Thousands to head for capital for weekend of rock concerts

Thousands of concert-goers will flood into Dublin over the weekend as four big names in music descend on the capital.

Thousands of concert-goers will flood into Dublin over the weekend as four big names in music descend on the capital.

Gardaí are preparing for heavy traffic into the city while Iarnród Éireann has added extra trains to cope with travel demands from fans of Robbie Williams, Guns 'n' Roses, Metallica and The Eagles. Iarnród Éireann will add eight special trains on the Cork and Limerick routes both to and from Dublin. It will also control regular trains on Galway, Mayo, Cork, Kerry and Limerick routes to accommodate the increase in passengers.

Tickets for special trains must be purchased in advance and will not be available on the day of travel at train stations. By yesterday evening the 11.05am train today from Limerick arriving at Dublin's Heuston station at 1.30pm was sold out.

Two extra late-night services will run on the Northern and Maynooth lines after tonight's Robbie Williams concert in Croke Park. The first leaves Connolly station to Dundalk at 12.05am and the second leaves Connolly to Maynooth at 12.15am.

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Garda will begin set up a traffic restriction cordon at Croke Park, similar to match days, from 10.30am. Concert-goers must have a valid concert ticket to be allowed through ticket checks at the cordon. Alcohol and other "articles likely to cause harm or annoyance" will be seized at the cordon, according to Garda officials.

Various junctions on the following roads will have restricted access today: Clonliffe Road, Lower Drumcondra Road, Fitzroy Avenue, Whitworth Place, North Circular Road, Lower Sherrard Street, Belvedere Avenue, Portland Street North, Russell Street, St Margaret's Avenue, North Richmond Street, Ballybough Road, Sackville Avenue, Fosters Avenue, Clonliffe Avenue and O'Sullivan's Avenue.

After the concert, an outer traffic cordon will be in place from 10.45pm. City-bound traffic from the Marino and Fairview area will use Fairview to North Strand rout, while outbound traffic will use the Amiens Street to North Strand route.

Ballybough, Fairview Strand and Summerhill will be closed to traffic.

North Circular Road will be closed between Lower Dorset Street to Amiens Street, with Gardiner Street being used as an alternate route.

Drumcondra Road Lower will be closed between Whitworth Road and Botanic Avenue, with traffic diverted via Harts Corner and Botanic Road/ Finglas Road. Mountjoy Square and Poplar Row will be used for private coach parking, and Gardiner Street along Mountjoy square will be used as a drop and go area for buses and coaches.