Dublin

Where are the Lowest House Prices in Ireland

A recent DAFT report  listed the average asking prices for houses  in the first 3 months of 2011.
The figures are given in the table below – for 4 Bedroomed Houses.
County Leitrim had the lowest average prices and Co.  Roscommon had the next lowest.

The average asking price of a 4 bedroomed house in  Leitrim was €179000. In County Roscommon it was €181000.

Take a look at some bargain properties here -
Detached 5 Bedroomed Bungalows under €200k

You couldn’t buy a site and build a 5 bedroomed house for that price!

As expected – the  most expensive  area was Dublin  – with South County Dublin prices just over three times higher than prices in Leitrim.
The highest prices outside Dublin were in Wicklow, Kildare and Cork.

Historic Walled Towns of Ireland

The history of Ireland can  be best seen  in its Walled Towns.
There are some of the  walled towns and villages throughout Ireland that are worth a visit.

Ardee, Athenry, Athlone, Bandon,  Cashel, Clonmel, Cork,
Drogheda, Dublin, Fethard, Galway, Kilkenny,
Limerick, New Ross,  Trim, Waterford, Wexford and Youghal.

The Viking raiders of the ninth century and the Anglo-Norman invaders of the twelfth built defensive strongholds that over the centuries came to enrich the fabric of Irish life.

These Irish Walled Towns are unique inheritances from times long past and should be treasured,

Top 15 Most Populated Towns in Ireland

The total population of Ireland at the 2006 census was 4.24 Million

Of those – 61% were living in towns or cities (2,574,313) and 39%  were living  in rural Ireland. (1,665,535)

Top 15  Population Figures of Irish Towns and Cities 2006 Census

1. Greater Dublin  1,045,769  24.7% of the population.

2. Cork City  190,384 (4.49%)

3. Limerick City 90,757 (2.14%)

4. Galway City 72,729 (1.72%)

5. Waterford City 49,213 (1.16%)

6. Drogheda 35,090 (0.83%)

7. Dundalk 35,085 (0.83%)

8. Swords 33,998 (0.8%)

9. Bray 31,901 (0.75%)

10. Navan 24,851 (0.59%)

11. Ennis 24,253 (0.57%)

12. Tralee 22,744 (0.54%)

13. Kilkenny 22,179 (0.52%)

14. Carlow 20,724 (0.49%)

15. Naas 20,044 ( 0.47%)

Obama Dublin Concert – No Tickets Required

A  concert in honour of Barack Obama will be held on College Green in Dublin on Monday May 23rd

The show is scheduled to run for more than two hours, and gates into the concert will open at 2pm. It is a free concert open to the public and tickets are not needed.

The final line-up has yet to be finalised – but there is some  speculation that Bono or even all of  U2 could make an appearance. U2 are on tour in  America – but are not playing on Sunday or Monday.

Other artists rumoured to appear are Jedward, Sharon Shannon, Mundy, The Coronas and Imelda May.

A number of leading Irish actors will give readings, among them Brendan Gleeson and Gabriel Byrne. Irish sporting figures are due to appear -  such as Pádraig Harrington, Robbie Keane and Brian O’Driscoll (with the Heineken Cup trophy.)

Members of the public have been advised to enter by the security gates at the intersection of Dame Street and Parliament Street.

The Taoiseach will introduce the headline act towards the end of the concert, when Barack Obama will address the crowd. It is expected that the grand finale will take place at around 6pm.

Visit of The Queen to Ireland – Places and Dates for

Queen Elizabeth II of England is making on official visit to Ireland in May 2011.
She is arriving on May 17th and will be in Ireland until May 20th.
Security is expected to be very high because of protests by Republican groups. Apparently two PSNI water cannons have been borrowed by the Gardaí  who are expecting demonstrations.

The Queen will be accompanied by the Duke of Edinburgh. The visit will start with a  welcome by President Mary McAleese at Áras an Uachtaráin followed by a ceremony at the Garden of Remembrance ; a courtesy call on the Taoiseach at Government Buildings; and a State dinner in Dublin Castle, at which both the Queen and the President will deliver speeches.

A visit to the National Stud in Kildare is next on the Quees’s itinerary followed by a visit to g Gilltown Stud, which is located outside Kilcullenin Co Kildare. ( The stud is owned by the Aga Khan )

As part of the security arrangements, the National Stud and adjacent Japanese Gardens will be closed to the public from Tuesday to Thursday next week and will re-open on Friday

A trip to Cashel is next on the card for the Queeen – to see the landmark Rock Of Cashel. The attraction will be closed from 16th to 19th May for security reasons.

Cork City is the next destination on the Queen’s visit.

In Thurday 19th   Westlife and X-Factor contestant Mary Byrne and others  will be performing for Queen Elizabeth during an evening celebrating fashion, music and theatre in Dublin Convention Centre in the Docklands. 2,000 guests have been invited to the event and President Mary McAleese will also be in attendance.

Queen Elizabeth II is expected in Cork City on Friday 20^th with a planned visit to the English Market .
Th Queen will depart from Cork Airport on 20th May

Best Quality Broadband in Ireland

On the Speedtest.net website – they run thousands of speed tests for internet users all over the world. They store and analyze the data – so they can compare the results from different internet providers.

For Ireland – they have worked out the top 5 providers based on a Quality Ranking which they do by measuring packet loss on the connection.
The data was collected between Oct 2009 and April  2011 – and is updated all the time
Only ISPs with more than 100 tests were included in the results.

April 11th – Updated Quality Rankings

Vodafone came out with the best quality broadband  in Ireland -  with a rating of   86.85 .

Eircom came second  with a rating of 85.99

Three – who only do mobile broadband came in a respectable third with 81.65 . This is surprising for mobile internet – which many people seem to assume is unreliable.

Imagine came fourth with 80.63 and  UPC came a poor 5th with just 63.43 – way behind the rest.

The town or city with the best overall quality of internet connection was Dublin with a rating of 77.57 and Cork was 75.13. Only towns with at least 500 tests were included.

Top 10 Dublin Schools 2011

The Sunday Times does a list of the best schools in Ireland every year.
The 2011 top schools is based on the numbers of pupils who go onto third level courses. This is probably not the best measure of a school’s performance – but without any meaningful statistics from the dept of Education – it is the best information we have.

Top Dublin Schools 2011

1. Gonzaga College
2. Teresian School
3. Colaiste Iosagain
4. Laurel Hill FCJ
5. Mount Anville
6. Loreto College
7. Holy Child
8. Colaiste Eoin
9. Alexandra College
10.  Rathdown School

Towns with the Best Broadband Speeds

According to speed tests carried out on Speedtest.net – between Sept 2008 and MArch 20011 these are the Top 10 towns with  fastest internet download speeds in Ireland

1. Lucan 15.33 Mbps
2. Maynooth  12.84 Mbps
3. Celbridge  11.53 Mbps
4. Swords  11.25  Mbps
5. Kilcock 10.76 Mbps
6. Naas  10.73 Mbps
7. Newbridge 10.68 Mbps
8. Carlow 9.39 Mbps
9. Athlone 9.31 Mbps
10. Dublin  8.88Mbps

By comparison – the same speed test site has the top 10 UK towns with average speeds ranging from 21Mbps to 29 Mbps. The top Irish town wouldn’t make it into the top 50 in the UK.

Cork came out with an av speed of 5.54 Mbps while Galway did slightly better with 6.28Mbps.
Tuam was the slowest shown – with av speeds of 1.31 Mbps

For Upload Speeds – these were the top ten Irish towns or cities

1 Dundalk 2.55 Mbps
2 Carlow 2.09 Mbps
3 Wicklow 1.90 Mbps
4 Athlone 1.76 Mbps
5 Lucan 1.70 Mbps
6 Maynooth 1.66 Mbps
7 Waterford 1.46 Mbps
8 Tralee 1.40 Mbps
9 Cavan 1.40 Mbps
10. Tipperary 1.33 Mbps

Overall – on the speedtest site – Ireland ranks in 52nd place. Results were obtained by analyzing test data between Feb 12, 2011 and Mar 13, 2011. Tests from 1,100,532 unique IPs have been taken in this country and of 7,145,506 total tests, 13,914 are being used for the current Index.

Dublin Locations of Speed Cameras

Dublin City Speed Cameras

Mobile speed cameras are being introduced in Dublin and nationwide to try and  reduce the incidence of fatal and serious injuries and improve road safety.

An Garda Síochána, in conjunction with the National Roads Authority have identified secctions of road  where a significant proportion of accidents occurred due to speeding.

These are the “speed enforcement zones” within Dublin that may be  be monitored by the new  GoSafe mobile camera vans or by Garda

Here is map from Garda.ie showing the roads in Dublin where the private contractor GoSafe will be monitoring with mobile speed cameras in vans. (Shown in Red – Zoom in for better view)

View Larger Map

Top 10 Free Visitor Attractions in Ireland

These are the 10 most popular tourist destinations in Ireland – that are FREE.
Figures shown are the number of visitors in 2008 .

The National Gallery of    742,332
Irish Museum of Modern Art                  440,000
National Museum of Ireland – Archaeology                        380,547
National Museum of Ireland – Arts & History   300,418
Holy Cross Abbey   Shannon              260,000
Chester Beatty Library                          225,543
Dublin City Gallery  Hugh Lane          203,207
Farmleigh        196,449
The National Library of Ireland               136,509
Nicholas Mosse Pottery        Kilkenny     120,000
National Museum of  Country Life   Castlebar               112,195