Parliament Street in Temple Bar is set to be pedestrianised on weekend evenings, Dublin City Council has announced.
The city centre street will go car free every Thursday, Friday and Saturday evening from 6:30pm to 11pm, starting tomorrow.
Last summer, the street was pedestrianised in an effort to make more room for outdoor dining and socialising, in line with COVID-19 restrictions.
In May, DCC permanently pedestrianised Capel Street in the north inner city, making it the longest car-free road in Dublin.
Recently, Dublin City Council (DCC) has also agreed to move forward with the full pedestrianisation of South William Street.
A 17-week trial run last summer proved popular, with a public consultation finding more than 90% of people backed the move.
Starting on the 21st July and running till the end of August, Parliament Street will be traffic free every Thursday, Friday and Saturday evening. #Dublin #SummerinDublin #Trafficfree pic.twitter.com/tZTiWzOWQM
— Dublin City Council (@DubCityCouncil) July 13, 2022
Speaking to Newstalk at the time, Dublin’s Deputy Lord Mayor Joe Costello said that pedestrianisation was the way forward for the area.
Publican Panti Bliss - aka Rory O'Neill - told The Hard Shoulder last year that he believes his business would be gone without the pedestrianisation scheme following the impact of the pandemic on businesses.
O’Neill says he was surprised at how well people embraced the pedestrianisation.
"We were worried about it because we didn't really know how it would go, as soon as the pedestrianisation was announced we started to get our hopes up a little.”
"But even we were surprised at how people have embraced it and loved it, and how transformative it has been for the street".
"Tawdry"
On Newstalk Breakfast earlier this week, Sunday Independent columnist Liam Collins said that Dublin’s College Green is “tawdry” and should be pedestrianised to help it compete with the grandeur of other European city centres.
He said he thinks College Green should also go car free, noting “how awful the place looks”.
“There’s Trinity, one of the oldest universities in the world and across the road the old Bank of Ireland which was the Parliament where the Act of Union came into force in 1801,” he said.
“It’s an appalling, I think, vista for tourists and our own visitors that that stretch is just left there, the buses and taxis jostling for space and there’s no effort to just clear it of all that clutter and make it a beautiful vista.”
Main image shows people enjoy food and drink on Parliament Street on the first Saturday of outdoor dining, 12-06-2021. Image: Leah Farrell/RollingNews
