25 years of DART! Join in the celebrations!

[Colm Moore]

http://www.irishrail.ie/news_centre/general_news.asp?action=view&news_id=388

25 years of DART! Join in the celebrations! by Corporate Communications

Iarnród Éireann has announced a series of events to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the DART service.

On 23rd July 1984, the DART service began operating, and since that date, it has become one of the country’s greatest public transport success stories. It is an icon of Dublin, and has played a crucial role in the life of Dubliners over the 25 years, with almost half a billion passenger journeys made.

Because DART is such a significant part of the daily lives of so many people, Iarnród Éireann is marking 25 years of DART in ways that involve our commuters and will speak of the unique place DART has in Dublin’s landscape. Fun, music, poetry, dining and celebration will all feature throughout the summer months.

A unique advertising campaign to mark 25 years, featuring the work of renowned artists Graham Knuttel and Rasher, has just been launched across billboards around the city.

A series of special concerts entitled The Platform will be held at Pearse Station on Fridays throughout the summer, to allow commuters to share in the celebrations. These begin this Friday 10th July at 17.00hrs, with Captain Magic Wonderland.

Commuters also have the opportunity every day to win free travel on the DART for a month, with the Evening Herald, in Railing in the Years, which tests your knowledge of news and events across the 25 years of DART. A draw will take place amongst daily winners for free travel for a year!

The actual day of the 25th anniversary, Thursday 23rd July, will be one of celebration and goodies galore for commuters, and a unique event entitled DART 25 Live, with prominent contemporary Irish music acts and comedians will be held on board a special DART train in the evening. Acts performing will be Jerry Fish and the Mudbug Club, David Kitt, The Chapters, and comedian Eric Lalor. Tickets for this unique event will be available as part of a joint promotion with radio station Dublin’s 98. http://www.dublins98.ie/competitions/dart_25_live.php

DART will also team up with the Restaurants Association of Ireland in August to host Dining by DART in city centre stations, allowing commuters sample the signature dishes of some of Dublin’s best loved restaurants at their stations.

The popular Poet’s Corner feature, which has entertained DART customers for 22 years, is now giving budding poets amongst commuters the opportunity to be featured in Poet’s Corner, alongside Nobel Laureates and other renowned writers. Details are available here. http://www.irishrail.ie/news_centre/general_news.asp?action=view&news_id=349

If you haven't seen it, here's a chance http://www.rte.ie/player/#v=1051426 to watch RTÉ's special edition of Capital D, from 2nd July, marking the 25th anniversary of DART.

With 25 years under its belt, DART is set to embark on a new phase of expansion over the coming years. Under Transport 21, DART is set to be extended to the Northern line, Maynooth and Hazelhatch between now and 2015. Also in 2015, DART Underground, a 7.5 kilometre line running underground from Docklands to Inchicore, serving underground stations at Docklands, Pearse, St Stephen’s Green, Christchurch and Heuston, will open. This will allow the number of trains on all lines to increase dramatically, as well as connecting all rail modes together – DART, Commuter, Intercity, Luas and Metro - into an integrated network.

[karlr42]

An unusually professional release from Corporate Communications, if only they put the same effort into all their statements.

[James Shields]

There was a live band playing in Pearse yesterday (Fri 10th). Not bad. Shame I wasn't there a little longer.

[Colm Moore]

Originally Posted by James Shields

There was a live band playing in Pearse yesterday (Fri 10th). Not bad. Shame I wasn't there a little longer.

From http://e-edition.metroireland.ie/2009/07/10/

[Mark Gleeson]

There was a goodie bag being given out at Pearse this morning

The number of commuters who looked inside and then handed them back was quite interesting. They ran out before 9am as well. Pearse is all decked out with balloons and bunting

Its so wonderful to see a company so stuck for cash to so freely waste its time and resources. It really tells you something, PR value comes before everything else

[Thomas Ralph]

I wasn't given any. Must have come on the wrong train.

[ThomasJ]

Originally Posted by Mark Gleeson

There was a goodie bag being given out at Pearse this morning

The number of commuters who looked inside and then handed them back was quite interesting. They ran out before 9am as well. Pearse is all decked out with balloons and bunting

Its so wonderful to see a company so stuck for cash to so freely waste its time and resources. It really tells you something, PR value comes before everything else

Probably disappointed after no winning that golden ticket!

5 goodie bags have a years free travel in them!

[Colm Moore]

http://www.irishrail.ie/news_centre/news.asp?action=view&news_id=526

DART Poets' Corner Competition Winners Announced by Marketing Department

Congratulations to the winners of the DART Poets’ Corner Competition (in no particular order):

John O’Donnell, Dublin for his poem - The Blue Man

Cecilia McGovern, Dublin for her poem - It is Dangerous to lean out

Eamonn Bonner, Donegal for his poem - Climbing out of the window

These poems will be displayed on trains, in stations and will be published after the awards ceremony on irishrail.ie

Thank you all for entering.

[Colm Moore]

http://www.irishrail.ie/news_centre/news.asp?action=view&news_id=422

Nobel Laureate Seamus Heaney presents prizes to winners of DART 25 poetry competition by Corporate Communications

The DART has a long association with poetry. Poets’ Corner has been in situ in DART trains and at stations for 23 years and has provided pleasure for the tens of thousands of commuters who travel by DART every day.

This competition was part of the DART 25 celebrations. Members of the public were invited to submit a poem about the DART or about any railway journey. Some 400 entries were received, in both English and Irish.

The winners were: Cecilia McGovern, from Dublin, for her poem entitled “It is dangerous to lean out”, Eamonn Bonner, from Letterkenny, Co. Donegal, for “Climbing out the window” and John O’Donnell, from Dublin, for “The Blue Man”.

The three winning poems are now displayed in DART carriages and station platforms.

The judges for the competition, Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin, Moya Cannon and Louis de Paor, were also in attendance at the National Gallery of Ireland.

Eilean Ni Chuilleanain said: “Railway transport is a wonderful subject, and it was striking, reading the entries, how many different approaches the writers took, capturing the ordinary and the exotic, how the train threads itself through places and moves people together and apart”.

Moya Cannon said: “The Poems on the DART initiative is perhaps particularly appropriate because in the ordinariness of our lives' journeys there are illuminating moments when our perspective, our consciousness, shifts subtly to embrace a new reality. One of the things that art -- be it painting, music, poetry -- does is to honour these moments and translate them from the private to the public sphere”

The Awards ceremony for the DART 25 Poetry in Motion competition marks the conclusion of the various celebrations of the 25th anniversary of the DART service this year.

Poems and photo on original link.