With gay marriage apparently set to get the go-ahead (in all but name) in the Irish Republic, homosexual honeymooners might think twice about choosing Northern Ireland for a vacation. They have been effectively declared persona non grata by the First Lady ... Read more...

In an almost Orwellian exercise European geography has changed over the last years - whereas some time ago the declaration of an airline to fly you to destination X meant just that, these days it means "actually Y, but we call it X because it sounds better and it us just a few hours drive away". Thus flying to "Frankfurt-Hahn" will land you on a disused US air base nowhere near Frankfurt. Now it seems that Irish Rail has copied the idea. By providing a rail link to Dublin's Phoenis Park.

Commuters and visitors can now take the train from Connolly Station and get off at a station named "Phoenix Park". Which in all fairness should have been called "Somewhere between the N3 and the Royal Canal". Because, as anybody unwise enough to try will find out, Dublin's famous Phoenix Park is about 15 to 20 minutes walk away. And you should have used the much nearer Ashtown halt. Or even Heuston Station to the south, from where the new Phoenix Park Shuttle runs.

Public transport in Dublin can be complicated enough due to a lack of integrated ticketing and coordination. This is certainly not helped by adding a station with a none-too-precise name.