cycling in ireland

[welshwoodsman]

anyone cycled from rosslare to dublin? Can you recommend a route? Also a daft question, would i need a passport to go into ireland from uk?

[meic]

Legally you do not need a passport to go to the Republic of Ireland.
However you do need something to prove that you are a British Citizen (even more so when you try to get back home!!!).
I dont know what they accept without hassling you nowadays, picture driving licence?

[welshwoodsman]

thanks meic. It'll have to be my driving license, passports expired and i'm off in a fortnight. After my shake down tour of pembs,i've got the bug. So once i get to dublin, i'll get the ferry over to holyhead and lon las cymru all the way home.

[gaz]

Legally you do not need a passport to go to the Republic of Ireland.
However you do need something to prove that you are a British Citizen (even more so when you try to get back home!!!).
I dont know what they accept without hassling you nowadays, picture driving licence?

The UK opted out of certain EU rules and you need either a Passport or EU National ID card to enter the UK. A UK Driving Licence is not an identity card.

Time for an emergency passport application?

[vjosullivan]

My understanding was that, if you are British then you don't need to prove your identity enter Britain. However, you do need an identity card to prove that you are British and therefore don't need said card...

[gaz]

There is no identity card to prove you are a UK citizen. Our brief expirement with ID cards ended in January this year. Any ID card issued under that sheme is no longer valid.

A UK driving licence has a legal status as confirmation of identity but not nationality. Since it doesn't prove you are an EU citizen it doesn't confer right of entry to the UK.

More here.

I have no practical experience of attempting to enter the UK as a UK citizen without a Passport. Perhaps you can claim asylum if challenged?

[Big T]

No passport needed going to or from Ireland. I went over on the ferry a couple of years ago and no-one checked our passports either way. There are signs up at Holyhead ferry port to say you don't need a passport to get to or from Ireland.

[eileithyia]

Well I've never needed to prove British Citizen on return to UK from Ireland but ti might have changed since I last went.

When i did Dublin and south I went down through the Wicklows and Molly Gap and on down to Wexford, just used lanes as much as possible.

[emergency_pants]

I did a directions map on Google for walking Rosslare to Dublin and the route it gave was very good. Quite a nice, quiet route. The 'R' roads are often fairly quiet once you are away from the bigger towns.

If you have the time, you could weave up to Dublin, taking in the best parts of coast roads and wicklow mountains but that google route looks quite pleasant to me.

[LANDSURFER74]

i travel back and forward to all the Dublin ports monthly on business, i have never been asked for any ID ... But remember why it is called the "Emerald Isle" .... its always raining .....!!! or about to rain ... or just finished raining ...... god it's wet !!!!!

[NUKe]

You need Photogrphic ID if you want to fly Airline security rules largely down to 911, A British photographic licence is enough. But the border arrangements are such between the UK and ireland that you are not required to either pass through customs or border controls. You can travel on the ferry without ID. Back in the bad olddays I was once asked for ID at the police security checkpoint as we disembarked at Hollyhead. A young Copper fresh out of Police school was insisting I had to have some form of ID he got quite upset, until his senior quitely explained I was well within my rights not to carry any.

Only problem I've had inthe other direction was during the foot and mouth Crisis, about 10 years ago. I was travelling over to the North via Dublin. My Dog was in the sidecar. I had even rung the Irish Ministry helpline to check we were OK to travel. "Domestic dogs in Cars were OK". when we alighted from the boat, all the vehicles were being checked.
"I do not think thats allowed" say the guy pointing the dog looking through the window. I portested saying that I'd rung the helpline and they had said
"Domestic Dogs in cars were OK"
"But its not in a car" was his reply
"yes it is" I said "Its a a side car". Fortunately His boss agreed with me and after a quick run through the boot bath the dog was allowed on its way.

[Gearoidmuar]

Well I've never needed to prove British Citizen on return to UK from Ireland but ti might have changed since I last went.

When i did Dublin and south I went down through the Wicklows and Molly Gap and on down to Wexford, just used lanes as much as possible.

Sally Gap I'd say. Molls gap is in Kerry. I've never heard of Molly Gap, but maybe I'm wrong.

[iviehoff]

Be very careful when travelling UK-Ireland, or even Great Britain-Northern Ireland. Don't just assume you can get away with a driving licence. Whether you can depends upon precisely how you cross the border, and even, precisely how you communicated with the transport operator. A passport will always get you through, but if you want to get through with just a driving licence, then check very carefully the requirements of your transport operator. A colleague of mine was once denied boarding an aircraft at the aircraft door, having gone through all the previous checks at the airport, because he didn't have his passport, even though he had made the same journey many times before without it.

From the perspective of immigration, the UK and Ireland are a "common travel area." The land border has no borderpost or formalities. When you arrive in the UK from Ireland by air, you are taken a special route through the airport and do not go through passport control. But the Irish have not made the same arrangements at their end, when you land in Ireland you are routed through passport control, although in theory you don't need to show your passport - the day I forgot to take mine (in the days before compulsory photo-id for airplanes) I waved my travel docs at the Irish passport control and got through. Part of the problem is that, although the UK and Ireland are a "common travel area", some kinds of visas, eg work visas, don't give reciprocal rights in the other country. This can be a serious problem for holders of certain visas arriving in Britain if they first travel to Ireland, and, they are not advised to do this if they need their visa stamped. There is also the bizarre issue that the basic visitor visa, for which UK and Ireland supposedly is a common travel area, have 3 months validity in Ireland but 6 months in the UK. The Irish take the opposite attitude, they do want to check the passports of all non-EEA nationals arriving in Ireland from Britain, if they can. They don't do this at the land border, but they do do it at the airport.

But then there is the transport operator. You have to show adequate identification to the transport operator, and they vary according to what they accept, not just by route, but also according to the manner of presenting yourself. For example, Ryanair long accepted a driving licence as adequate identity. Then they started doing on-line check-in, and decided that a driving licence was not adequate for on-line check-in - this was the pit my colleague mentioned above fell into - he would have been fine if he had checked in at the airport. Now Ryanair insist all passengers do on-line check-in, so a driving licence is inadequate for any Ryanair flight.

I suspect you are travelling by ferry. Better check what documents the ferry operator accepts.

[eileithyia]

Well I've never needed to prove British Citizen on return to UK from Ireland but ti might have changed since I last went.

When i did Dublin and south I went down through the Wicklows and Molly Gap and on down to Wexford, just used lanes as much as possible.

Sally Gap I'd say. Molls gap is in Kerry. I've never heard of Molly Gap, but maybe I'm wrong.

yeah you're right knew the sun and heatwave I experienced in Ireland that year had gone to my head

[iron legs]

[quote][/quote]LANDSURFER74 » Tue Jul 05, 2011 9:48 pm
i travel back and forward to all the Dublin ports monthly on business, i have never been asked for any ID ... But remember why it is called the "Emerald Isle" .... its always raining .....!!! or about to rain ... or just finished raining ...... god it's wet !!!!!

It's called a liquid sunshine and unless you're soaked to the skin, it isn't wet.