Hello, Irish members of the BMWCC, especially those in the Dublin area, and greetings from cold but sunny Yorkshire, England.

My 1999 2.8 Z3 gets its first outing of the year in a couple of weeks when my wife and I will be coming over on the Swift from Holyhead and stopping in Trim for three nights for a wedding, plus a bit of sightseeing. We fancy a day in the centre of Dublin, and wondered if anybody could advise on the best place to park up (off-street) for four or five hours within walking distance of the city centre, preferably as we approach from the direction of Navan (the N3 I believe - I think that's the way we will be coming in).

It'll be our third trip to Ireland in the Zed - the last two were right across to near Westport, Co Mayo, where we've got friends. Both times, I don't think I saw another Zed all week and we were surprised at how few sports cars there were generally. Are there any club members in Trim?

Isn't Techno from up around there?

Enjoy your visit!

Thanks for the links - that's a big help.

By the way, Fey! - thanks for your good wishes. You're from Galway, I see. Been there quite a few times, and had some good nights in the 'Skeff' in Eyre Square.

Kin Mak wrote: I would say Brown Thomas would be a good place to park. Easy access, easy to find and can't get any more central than that.

That is the best one I reckon on the southside, although the nearest one coming off the N3 would be the Ilac center on the northside, but then you would have to walk over to all the good shops, and thats coming from a ex northsider

100GRA wrote: ...You're from Galway, I see. Been there quite a few times, and had some good nights in the 'Skeff' in Eyre Square.

Eyre Square. Currently in a state of some disrepair, I understand.....

Gra - was that the old Skeff or the new Skeff (the "new" one being 10 years old!!!)  Have had a few late nights/early mornings in the old one myself!!!

Horsey - my brother (who lives in Germany) informed me yesterday that the square is due to be officially opened in a couple of weeks.  I work 500 yards from it, and I didn't know that!!!

Just back from London, hence the delay in replying.

The "old" Skeff, I would say - it must be ten years now since I was last there, and I didn't even know it had been altered. I used to be over there quite a bit on business, and socialising in the evening with some of my Irish sports journalist colleagues (from Dublin and Cork) who always seemed to use the Skeff when they were in Galway.

Cycling is one of the sports our agency covers and, back in the old days (late 80s, very early 90s) when Kelly and Roche were at the top of their game, the Nissan Classic in Ireland was a really big race at the end of the season, with all the top foreign teams there. Had quite a few stage finishes in Galway, not to mention just about every other city and biggish town in Ireland over the years, which to a large extent is how I came to get to know Ireland pretty well. I always enjoy going back, but nowadays it's for pleasure! Haven't been there on business since the 1998 Tour de France.

Going off at a tangent, does anybody have dealings with BMW dealers Murphy & Gunn? They are sponsoring a pro cycling team for the coming season. Their rider Conor Murphy (presumably some relation) won today's Bray Grand Prix, first road race of the Irish season.

Well, after all that, I chickened out on two counts.

First of all, the weather has been so unpredictable over here for the last couple of weeks that I decided not to go in the Zed (which has hardly been out of the garage yet), and went in my Land Rover Freelander instead. It was a good move. Having had our Swift crossing cancelled because of adverse weather, we finished up having to dash to catch the 0905 ordinary boat which meant getting up at 6am on Sunday after a good wedding thrash at Trim on Saturday. Then we finished up driving back through North Wales and over the Snake Pass in slush.

As for going into the centre of Dublin on Friday and parking for the day, we decided on a change of plan after taking an hour and a half to do 12 miles out of Dublin from the ferry terminal in the rush hour on Thursday evening. It took us exactly two hours to Trim, and we thought it might be even worse on a Friday night, so on the Friday morning we took local advice and parked up at Blanchardstown shopping centre and caught a No 39 bus right into College Green. It worked perfectly. Had a good pub lunch in Dublin - the best Irish stew I have ever tasted!

Going back to the traffic, I simply followed the signs for the N3 all the way from the ferry terminal and I was struck by the apparent lack of any real traffic management schemes to keep things moving smoothly. It was slower even than coming out of central London at the same time of day.

Anyway, that won't stop me coming again, hopefully in the Zed next time. Usually when we come over, we are on the Swift that gets in at about 11.30am and leaves at about 12.30pm, and we've never had particular trouble with the traffic (we're usually heading out along the river for the N4).