Dublin City Council (Irish: Comhairle Cathrach Bhaile Átha Cliath) is the authority responsible for local government in the city of Dublin in Ireland. As a city council, it is governed by the Local Government Act 2001. Until 2001, the council was known as Dublin Corporation. The council is responsible for public housing and community, roads and transportation, urban planning and development, amenity and culture and environment. The council has 63 elected members and is the largest local council in Ireland. Elections are held every five years and are by single transferable vote. The head of the council has the honorific title of Lord Mayor. The city administration is headed by a Chief Executive, Owen Keegan. The council meets at City Hall, Dublin..
Health inequalities, deeply connected to broader social determinants such as unemployment, inadequate housing, and limited access to healthcare and essential services, remain a global concern. These factors disproportionately impact socioeconomically underserved communities, even in high-income countries. In Ireland, similar disparities are evident within urban areas. Although policy and practice increasingly promote community participation, there is limited evidence on how communities perceive and articulate their challenges and priorities. This study, conducted in collaboration with Healthy Communities Local Development Officers across three underserved Dublin communities, employed an interpretive qualitative approach grounded in a community-based participatory research framework. Data collection involved guided interactive walks with residents and workers, structured group activities to define and prioritize needs, and focus group discussions. Braun and Clarke's thematic analysis method was used, followed by relevant parties' engagement workshop to review findings and discuss next steps. Six interrelated themes were generated: challenging environmental conditions, substance use and drug-related harm, gaps in healthcare access, social isolation and inadequate amenities, diminished safety and support, and fragmented family structures. These were underpinned by recurring latent themes of community disempowerment, lack of involvement in decision-making, misaligned interventions, and mistrust in statutory bodies. The findings highlight the importance of amplifying community voices to better understand local needs and priorities. Addressing these issues requires integrated, multi-sectoral approaches that combine local government action on place-based determinants with systemic and national-level policy reforms. This study lays the foundation for more meaningful community engagement and co-creation of locally tailored, community-led solutions to tackle entrenched inequities.
On 1 April 1923, a 'temporary frontier' on imported goods was placed on the boundary line between Northern Ireland and the Irish Free State. This temporary frontier lasted for over 70 years, only being rescinded due to the introduction of the Single Market throughout the European Union in 1993. It was the Irish Free State government that introduced the measure that in essence created a hard land border on the island, and not the Northern Ireland government, with its prime minister Sir James Craig claiming that 'Those in the South who proposed to erect that barrier wall, and not the North, would be responsible for partition. There was no such thing as partition if they had not a Customs barrier between the North and the South' (Irish Times, 10 March 1923). Despite the Free State government's public utterances opposing partition, its decision to erect customs barriers helped to cement partition. This article looks at why the fledgling Irish Free State government chose to erect customs barriers, why the Northern Ireland government opposed the move, and how it drove a further wedge between both jurisdictions, politically, economically and socially.
Small urban streams discharging in the proximity of bathing waters may significantly contribute to the deterioration of water quality, yet their impact may be overlooked. This study focuses on the Elm Park stream in the city of Dublin that is subject to faecal contamination by unidentified sources. The aim of the study was to identify a minimum number of “sentinel” sampling stations in an urban catchment that would provide the maximum amount of information regarding faecal pollution in the catchment. Thus, high-resolution sampling within the catchment was carried out over the course of 1 year at 11 stations. Faecal indicator bacteria were enumerated and microbial source tracking (MST) was employed to evaluate human pollution. In addition, ammonium, total oxidised nitrogen, and phosphorus levels were monitored to determine if these correlated with faecal indicator and the HF183 MST marker. In addition, the effect of severe weather events on water quality was assessed using automated sampling at one of the identified “sentinel” stations during baseflow and high flow conditions over a 24-h period. Our results show that this urban stream is at times highly contaminated by point source faecal pollution and that human faecal pollution is pervasive in the catchment. Correlations between ammonium concentrations and faecal indicator bacteria (FIB) as well as the human MST marker were observed during the study. Cluster analysis identified four “sentinel” stations that provide sufficient information on faecal pollution in the stream, thus reducing the geographical complexity of the catchment. Furthermore, ammonium levels strongly correlated with FIB and the human HF183 MST marker under high flow conditions at key “sentinel” stations. This work demonstrates the effectiveness of pairing MST, faecal indicators, and ammonium monitoring to identify “sentinel” stations that could be more rapidly assessed using real-time ammonium readouts to assess remediation efforts.
Weather has the largest collective effect on transport systems, affecting users of all modes at the same time over a wide area. The aim of the research is to use Automatic Vehicle Location System (AVLS) data to investigate the impact of adverse weather, using rainfall, temperature and wind speed as indicators, on bus journey time. It will also assess if the impacts are dissimilar across three bus route types: bus lanes on the entire route, bus lanes on part of the route and buses running in mixed traffic. Previous research tends to use bus ridership levels as the key variable of interest when exploring weather impacts whereas the approach taken here will examine bus journey times. Multiple linear regression and in-depth analyses are used to explore which weather variables have the greatest effects. Results indicate that more bus journey time variation can be explained by weather on weekdays than on weekends. Increases in rainfall, wind speed and temperature resulted in longer journey times, but the extent depends on the season and route type. The results will be useful to bus operators and local authorities in preparing mitigation strategies and for longer term planning, particularly in the context of climate change.
