I used to travel A LOT. Up to ten trips a year sometimes: America once or twice a year, then lots of weekend breaks around Europe, then throw in a beach holiday or two in Majorca for good measure. All that travel came to a grinding halt five years ago when our son was born. We made two trips with him to the Netherlands when he was a few months old. But it was so much hassle travelling with him …
Inspired by Brian O’Neill’s call for new contributors, this is a first-time post; little to do with politics and nothing to do with pestilence, but hopefully a bit of an antidote to the latter. If you were like me, and loved to browse an atlas in days before the internet, you might possibly have happened upon a seemingly innocuous speck of an island on the opposite side of the world which rejoices in the name New Ireland. I had come …
Rossnowlagh Beach, Donegal, on the last cusp of summer can give you a tingle of isolation that goes far beyond the blue-grey horizon. When the tide sneaks in (beware parked cars) it is loud and bossy, laying down challenges to trespassers and surfers alike to come and have a go. It is a place of the bleakest magic. For others, that equivalence comes from the lure of the North Coast, the Mournes or even just the skittering of birds along …
Brian let me see his post before he published it earlier on today, but it lacks context. That context is the purpose of a private company, ie to make money. As I’ve outlined before, here, here and here and probably other places besides, there are several fundamental problems with the operating model in Northern Ireland. The first is that Translink is expected to run loss-making services on no more than the cash it gets in the farebox and for concessionary …
If you commute into Belfast by car, you will know it is a pretty hellish experience. Congestion is getting worse. At peak times the Westlink is like a car park. Trains are already at capacity, so the best option is to increase bus usage. The Guardian has this to say about the benefits of bus services in England: The M25 has 790 miles of lanes. If these are used by cars carrying the average load of 1.6 occupants, at 60mph …
