PUBLIC TRANSPORT

All Photographs Supplied By William Murphy

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DUBLINBIKES DOCKING STATION 03 AT BOLTON STREET COLLEGE

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THE SUNLIGHT WAS INTENSE TODAY

As I walked along Capel Street towards I was blinded by the sunlight.

When I returned home I was a bit exhausted a somewhat lazy so decided to ask Google’s AI known as Bard [name changed to Gemini a few days ago] about Dublinbikes and after a number of attempts to get accurate information I eventually get the following: “I apologize, I made a mistake in my previous information about Dublinbikes. You are correct, there are not 600 docking stations. As of today, February 12, 2024, there are actually 115 Dublinbikes docking stations operating in the city. My information was outdated and I appreciate you pointing out the error. Is there anything else you’d like to know about Dublinbikes? I’d be happy to provide accurate and up-to-date information.”

Google explained the reasons for the name change as follows: ” “For us, Gemini is our approach overall in terms of how we are building our most capable and safe AI model and Bard was the most direct way that people could interact with our models so it really made sense to just evolve it to be Gemini because you are talking directly to the underlying Gemini model when you use it.” Does this actually explain anything?

HANOVER QUAY EAST DOCKING STATION 117 AT THE AIRBNB WAREHOUSE HQ BUILDING REF-225479-1

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THERE IS ANOTHER STATION AROUND THE CORNER ON BENSON STREET

For some unknown reason there is no number plate identify this docking station so I decided to explore the user interface and it showed the location as being Station 117 at East Hanover Quay. There is another docking station very close by on Benson Street.

Housed in one of the last remaining warehouse buildings that were so characteristic of the Dublin Dockands, the new EMEA headquarters building for Airbnb is designed as a workspace for 400 people.

Hanover Quay forms the north boundary of the extensive L-shaped docks that terminated the Grand Canal, next to the mouth of the River Dodder. Constructed between 1757 and 1796, the Grand and Royal canals encircle Dublin city centre and provide navigable waterway connections between the Liffey and Shannon rivers. Despite construction of these deep-water docks, ships continued to berth on the Liffey quays and, with the decline of the Grand Canal, the associated docks followed suit.

Despite alterations to the adjacent quays, the calp limestone walls are retained, in addition to other salient features. The scale and quality of construction of the quay and docks are testament to the ambitions of the Grand Canal Company. It forms an important part of the city’s industrial heritage and is an important reminder of the heyday of the canal era, prior to its demise following the arrival of the railway. The district is now largely redeveloped, focusing on the Grand Canal Theatre.

DUBLINBIKES DOCKING STATION 42

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SMITHFIELD PLAZA OR SQUARE – CHOOSE WHICH YOU PREFER

Every time I research this specific location I am informed that Smithfield Square is an up-and-coming area on Dublin’s Northside and after almost twenty it becomes tedious.

Recent commercial, residential and cultural developments led to the area becoming newly fashionable in the first decade of the 21st century. However, most notably in the period 2008 to 2010, stagnation set in as developments stalled and the Irish economy/property market nose-dived once the post-Celtic Tiger economic recession struck. The significant issues of variable apartment occupancy rates, coupled with closed retail spaces and a number of unfinished and unoccupied commercial units at Smithfield Market have created a highly visible reminder of the economic and community challenges still to be addressed in this historic part of Dublin.

Several hotels are situated in Smithfield Square itself. The biggest is the 3-star Maldron Hotel Smithfield, with 92 rooms, from junior suites to family rooms. The well-known European accommodation chain Generator is adjacent to Jameson Distillery Bow St, and the newest addition is The Hendrick, which opened in 2019. All three hotels also have their own bars and restaurants.

ALL BIKES HAVE BEEN CHECKED OUT

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DUBLINBIKES DOCKING STATION 28 AT MOUNTJOY SQUARE

There are usually plenty of bicycles available at this popular docking station at Mountjoy Square but today there was not one available … maybe they were being used by the students at the nearby schools.

Mountjoy Square is a Georgian garden square in Dublin, Ireland, on the north side of the city just under a kilometre from the River Liffey. One of five Georgian squares in Dublin, it was planned and developed in the late 18th century by Luke Gardiner, 1st Viscount Mountjoy. It was surrounded on all sides by terraced, red-brick Georgian houses. Construction began in the early 1790s and the work was completed in 1818.

Over the centuries, the square has been home to many of Dublin’s most prominent people: lawyers, churchmen, politicians, writers and visual artists. The writer James Joyce lived around the square during some of his formative years, playwright Seán O’Casey wrote and set some of his most famous plays on the square while living there, W.B. Yeats stayed there with his friend John O’Leary, and more recently, much of the Oscar-winning film Once was made in the square. Historic meetings have taken place there, including planning for the Easter Rising and some of the earliest Dáil meetings. Prominent Irish Unionists and Republicans have shared the square.

Mountjoy can boast being Dublin’s only true Georgian square, each of its sides being exactly 140 metres in length. While the North, East and West sides each have 18 houses, the South has 19, reflecting some variation in plot sizes.Though each side was originally numbered individually,the houses are now numbered continuously clockwise from no. 1 in the north-west corner. While its North and South sides are continuous from corner to corner, the East and West sides are in three terraces, interrupted by two side streets, Grenville Street and Gardiner Place to the West and Fitzgibbon and North Great Charles Street to the East. Gardiner Street passes through the West side of the square, while Belvedere Place and Gardiner Lane run off the North- and South-East corners.

Although some of the original buildings fell to ruin over the 20th century and were eventually demolished, the new infill buildings were fronted with reproduction façades, so each side of the square maintains its appearance as a consistent Georgian terrace.

DUBLINBIKES DOCKING STATIONS AT GRANGEGORMAN – THERE ARE IN FACT THREE

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DOCKING STATIONS 103 104 AND 105

It is unusual to see a cluster of three docking stations such as this collection of three on the street passing through the TU university campus.

DublinBikes is a public bicycle sharing scheme in Dublin, Ireland. It is operated by JCDecaux and has been in operation since 2009. The scheme has over 115 stations and 42,000 annual subscribers.