Dublin City Marathon

N

Newbie!

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I need to vent my anger somewhere and see if people think I am being totally irrational.....

I live in the Crumlin area (on a small residential road which has many many access routes). I was away for the weekend and came back as I had to collect some family arriving in from New York inDublin aiport on Monday morning. I left my house in Crumlin at 9:30am yesterday and after realising that i couldnt get the airport via town, I went over the M50...everything hunky dory...

Anyway collected the arrivals at 10:30am and totted off back across the M50...came off at the red cow roundabout only to find that there was no access to Crumlin at all!! I went off towards walkinstown thinking that surely there would be some route I could get through but surely enough the marathon was literally a boundary line that i could not cross anywhere...after talking to a ban garda, she rudely told me I could walk home (with 3 large suitcases and 2 very tired older people) or just go out and come back when it was over. I overheard at that same time, another man asking when it would be over and a different guard sniggered and said well it can take up to six hours for it to go through different areas! I couldnt get over how rude they were.

anyway, it was 12:20 by now so we decided to head back to the M50 and come off at the lucan exit...drove all the way back to town and then through thomas street and made it home eventually at 1:30pm.

Now I know there are people out there who will 'well, why didn't you take that route in the first instance..?'

My point is....surely surely, if all the access roads to your house are closed off, you have the right to be notified and told this? A note through the door wouldnt hurt!!!!!!!! what if I had left the oven on, the kids at home...god knows what?? i am still angry, almost 24hours later....is this totally unjustified? I dont want to be an unreasonable person but............................................
 
I was standing at DID electrical at 12.20 and noticed that they were letting cars through from the canal side, but only when there was a break in the runners.

Signs were put up to the best of my knowledge about the marathon. Also, it's on every Oct bank holiday along this route so weren't you aware of this?

My wife ran and I had to drop her to town, cheer her on at DID and make my way to Orwell Road, then to UCD and finally to the finish and must say that I found the gardai very pleasant and accomodating.

I thought the whole thing was very well run TBH

Firefly
 
How were you not aware that the marathon was on?
If I knew such a major event was taking place in the vicinity of my house I would make it my business to find out about access points to my house.

I can understand your anger in a way but feel that maybe you are partly to blame for not finding out the necessary information ahead of time.
 
Newbie! said:
what if I had left the oven on, the kids at home...god knows what??
Click to expand...

You could have left the suitcases and old people in the car and ran home. It wouldn't have taken more than 10 minutes to get the oven off...or you could have phoned the kids to turn the oven off!

The marathon started at 9:00. Crumlin was roughly the 12 mile mark. There would not have been that many people doing 16 min mile pace so you could easily have gotten through if you asked nicely. I was up on the Crumlin Road at about that time and cars were getting through
 
I'd have been annoyed aswell Newbie.
Maybe you're new to the area and dont know the route of the marathon.
The least they could have done is dropped some information in your letter box informing you about it, so that you would have been able to prepare other routes home.
 
I sympathise Newbie, but wouldn't expect anything else here. There seems to be some aversion to putting up signs of either a permanent or temporary nature. The general sentiment seems to be that people should know where they're going anyway, I mean, who would ever want to venture into somewhere new??
T'other day, i was taking a short cut locally, half a mile from my destination i noticed a roadworks sign - thought i'd have to wait on lights, but no, in fact the whole road has been dug up and there were several diggers left across it to prevent anyone using it. Was there any warning given (bar the sign when the carnage was almost visible anyway), of course not, were there any diversion signs for those who may not know the area - of course not. Eventually i reached my destination, my short cut cost me about 30 mins extra.
 
Oh c'mon. Everyone knew that this was happening. The papers were full of reports on where the route was going and there was detailed information on the net about where and when there were road closures. A little bit of research before it and there wouldn't be a problem.

I totally disagree with them putting up signs everywhere. Useful for one day but then essentially litter afterwards. Extra cost and waste for what?

The marathon passed outside my door so we were essentially barricaded in for the duration. We knew that to get the car out we had to leave the house before 10am and park it elsewhere - a minor inconvenience for one day of the year.
 
I saw warning signs up in the week before hand warning that access would be restricted on the day of the event.
 
Mixed response.......

A few points, i have moved into the area since June 06 and am not originally from Dublin so whilst I did know that the marathon was every Oct bank hol w/e, I am not familiar with the route. I was also away for the weekend so didnt see a newspaper so is that my fault??????? Surely to advertise the route solely in a newspaper is discrimating or at least ignoring all those who simply do not buy newspapers??? I also did not see one sign up anywhere regarding the route.

It was a major inconvenience. I'm young and had nothing to get home to but the others are older and were tired....I felt embarressed and angry by the whole thing.

Although, I'm sure the exact same thing will happen next year............
 
Oh, there were signs up alright. They were just the usual crummy ones which indicate trouble ahead without being specific.

For example - the overbridge at UCD was used to get the runners from the Northbound side of the N11 to the Southbound side and on down to Nutley Lane.

Anyone trying to get to the Montrose hotel or the housing estates surrounding that area had *no* warning that the slip roads were closed. Heading north you would have found that the sliproad was closed and you would have been forced to continue on to the next junction - where you also couldn't turn off. Heading south you would have been forced to continue past the sliproad with no indication of what alternative arrangements were in place.

I stood on the bridge there on Monday (watching the runners) and saw a number of taxis and other cars performing (stupid) illegal turns to get back to where they wanted to be. The moves were stupid, but somewhat understandable in the absense of any usefull signage.

I don't have a problem with roads being closed but I do have a problem with the lack of signage and total lack of a designated crossing point for traffic.

z
 
Newbie! said:
...I felt embarressed and angry by the whole thing.
......
Click to expand...


Possibly by your own lack of preparation.

You knew the marathon was on. You left your house at 9:30. The marathon was only about half an hour away at that stage. There must have been some indication that it was going to pass your way. No barriers etc??
 
Hopefully (all going well), I'll be one of those causing an obstruction next year - if I can get the motivation going.
 
I read this post yesterday and was too annoyed to give you my tuppence. I feel my blood boiling when i hear of the rudeness of some of the gardai in this city.
I was heading south to the M50 from Terenure on Monday and was stopped at 2 checkpoints and told that I could not go this particular way due to the marathon etc. When i asked which way COULD i go in order to head south I was told head to KCR and turn left (towards Cypress Rd). All well and good, i have no problems with that. When i get to the KCR, another check point and i'm told i'm not allowed to go left OR straight ahead and that i must go right towards Harolds Cross/Town! So i parked the car and approached the guard who had told me this in order to ask for an alternative route and to explain that i was just sent here by one of his colleagues. He explained to me that this happened "once a year son" (i'm 35) to which i responded "so you are telling me that there is no alternative route which i can use to get to the M50?" then he told me again in no uncertain terms to move my car as it was causing an obstruction. It was parked beside the KCR garage with absolutely NOTHING around it. I told him it was an utter disgrace that he was not offering me an alternative route - all the while the ban garda behind him was sniggering! i couldn't believe what i was witnessing. Then the guard began getting a little uppity with me and i figured it was time to move before he found "something" wrong with my car. I told him again it was a disgrace and drove off towards D.I.D. by Sundrive where i was stopped again (4th time) and a very polite guard gave me concise directions to the M50 in a very polite manner. I thanked him for this and went on my way.
In hindsight when i requested that the original cop gave me an alternative route and refused, i should have asked him to radio in his superior and get it. But thats just antagonising them and lord knows where that will end you up.
The bottom line from my point of view is that i was under the impression that these people are there to serve and protect the normal folk. Is it any wonder that they have nasty nicknames and a lot of the public don't like the way they behave themselves?
Lord help us if they ever get guns........
 

As already stated....NO, there were no barriers!!!!!!!!
 
 
Elefantfresh, I had the same experience a few years back dropping by elderly father in law and my then 4 year old son to the Cork train. There was an event of some sort on (EU meeting or some such thing) and access to Heuston station was blocked about a mile back. I politely asked a Guard how they could get to the station and he said “walk” in a dismissive manner and then smirked at his colleague. I pointed out that it was an old man and a young boy with luggage and he said “so?”. He then told me to move my car. I told him that they still couldn’t get to the train station and he said “not my problem. Move!” and jerked his thumb toward the road that lead away from the station. I drove about 50 metres to the next Guard who was very professional and apologetic. In effect he gave me the same news but in a much better way. He suggested that my two passengers wait with him for 15 or 20 minutes and he would see if he could get a Garda car to drive them down to the station. In the end they walked but the contrast between the two officers could not have been greater. I did report the incident in writing with the numbers of both officers (to commend one and criticise the other). Needless to d=say I heard nothing back.
 
As this seems to have turned into a Garda thread, can I just make the point that we should be thankful that they are so lazy & incompetent, oterwise we would be living in a police state (and I'm not joking!)
 
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