The M50 motorway is a C-shaped orbital motorway in Dublin and the busiest motorway in Ireland. The current route was built in various sections over the course of 27 years, from 1983 to 2010. It begins at Dublin Port, running northward through the Dublin Port Tunnel and along a portion of the Airport Motorway. It then turns west at its junction with the M1, circling the northern, western and southern suburbs of Dublin, before merging with the M11 at Shankill in South East Dublin. The road forms part of European route E01.
The island of Ireland, comprising Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, has an extensive network of tens of thousands of kilometres of public roads, usually surfaced. These roads have been developed and modernised over centuries, from trackways suitable only for walkers and horses, to surfaced roads including modern motorways. Driving is on the left-hand side of the road. The major routes were established before Irish independence and consequently take little cognisance of the border other than a change of identification number and street furniture. Northern Ireland has had motorways since 1962, and has a well-developed network of primary, secondary and local routes. The Republic started work on its motorway network in the early 1980s; and historically, the road network there was once somewhat less well developed. However, the Celtic Tiger economic boom and an influx of European Union structural funding, saw national roads and regional roads in the Republic come up to international standard quite quickly. In the mid-1990s, for example, the Republic went from having only a few short sections of motorway to a network of motorways, dual carriageways and other improvements on most major routes as part of a National Development Plan. Road construction in Northern Ireland now tends to proceed at a slower pace than in the Republic, although a number of important bypasses and upgrades to dual carriageway have recently been completed or are about to begin.
The N7 road is a national primary road in Ireland, connecting Limerick and Dublin. The majority of the route is motorway standard and is designated as the M7 motorway. At the Rosbrien interchange in Limerick the route continues as the N18 dual carriageway to Galway, Shannon and Ennis. The road passes through the midlands of Ireland, and acts as a trunk route out of Dublin for the N8 and N9 national primary routes to Cork and Waterford respectively. It forms part of European route E20.
The N8 road is a national primary road in Ireland, connecting Cork with Dublin via the M7. The N8 is further classified by the United Nations as the entirety of the European route E 201, part of the trans-Europe International E-road network. The road is motorway standard from junction 19 on the M7 to the Dunkettle interchange in Cork City and is designated as the M8 motorway. From here the route continues into Cork city centre and terminates at the N22 road at St. Patrick's Street. The M8 motorway was completed in May 2010, replacing the single carriageway sections of the old N8 and bypassing towns on the main Cork to Dublin road. It is now possible to travel from Cork to Dublin on the M/N8 in about 2 hours 30 minutes. The route commences just south of Portlaoise, and reaches Cork via the midlands and the Golden Vale of Ireland, through Counties Laois, Kilkenny, Tipperary, Limerick and Cork.
The N11 road is a national primary road in Ireland, running for 129 km (80 mi) along the east side of Ireland from Dublin to Wexford. It passes close to Bray, Greystones, Wicklow, Arklow, Gorey, and Enniscorthy. Beyond Wexford, the route continues to Rosslare as the N25. The road forms part of European route E01. As of July 2019 the N11/M11 is of dual carriageway or motorway standard from Dublin as far as Oilgate in County Wexford.
The Jack Lynch Tunnel is an immersed tube tunnel and an integral part of the N40 road network in Cork, Ireland. It is named after former Taoiseach, Jack Lynch, a native of Cork.
The N9 road is a national primary road in Ireland running from Junction 11 on the M7, located near Kilcullen, County Kildare, to Waterford city. The route connects Dublin and Waterford. The section of the route from junction 11 on the M7 at Kilcullen to the intersection with the N24 road outside Waterford is motorway standard since 2010 and is designated as the M9 motorway. In line with Irish practice, all sections previously designated N9 were renumbered at that time. Only a short (550-metre) section of the route is still designated as N9 between the Quarry roundabout junction with the N24 and the N25 Grannagh Roundabout junction. This section is dual carriageway.
The N25 road is a national primary road in Ireland, forming the route from Cork to Rosslare Europort via Waterford City. The road is part of the E30 European route and a short section is also part of the E01 European route. It forms part of the proposed Atlantic Corridor route.
The N28 road is a national primary road in Ireland. It connects the port and village of Ringaskiddy to the N40 South Ring Road in Cork city.
The Red Cow interchange is a major road junction in west Dublin, Ireland on the M50, meeting the N7 Naas Road at a free-flow grade-separated junction which incorporates a tram line. The N7 route commences at this junction, junction 1 on the N7 and junction 9 on the M50, and the Naas Road from the city centre via Inchicore to the Red Cow interchange comprises part of the R110 and the R810. The junction is the busiest road junction in Ireland. Before a recent upgrade, it frequently had tailbacks several kilometres long on the routes leading to it.
The N71 road is a national secondary road traversing counties Cork and Kerry in Ireland. Towns and villages along the route, westward from Cork city, include Innishannon, Bandon, Clonakilty, Skibbereen, Bantry and Glengarriff in County Cork. Continuing westwards from Glengarriff into County Kerry, the route passes Kenmare and terminates at Killarney.
A national primary road is a road classification in Ireland. National primary roads form the major routes between the major urban centres. There are 2649 km of national primary roads. This category of road has the prefix "N" followed by one or two digits. Motorways are prefixed "M" followed by one or two digits.
Newlands Cross is a well-known junction and residential area in the south-west of County Dublin. The name Newlands has been recorded in the area since at least the year 1313.
The Kinsale Road Roundabout is a five-arm signalised roundabout in Cork City, located approximately 3km south of the city centre at the junction of the N40 South Ring Road and the N27 South City Link/Airport Road.
The Limerick Tunnel is a 675-metre-long (2,215 ft), twin bore road tunnel underneath the River Shannon on the outskirts of Limerick city. The tunnel forms part of the N18 Limerick Southern Ring Road. The tunnel is tolled.
The Atlantic corridor or Atlantic motorway is a proposed road project in Ireland. The scheme, announced in 2005, was intended to link Waterford in the South-East to Letterkenny in the North-West via motorway or dual carriageway by 2015. However, in part due to the post-2008 Irish economic downturn, major sections of the roadway were delayed or cancelled.
The M8 motorway is an inter-urban motorway in Ireland, which forms part of the motorway from the capital Dublin to Cork city. The 149 km motorway commences in the townland of Aghaboe, County Laois and runs through the counties of Kilkenny, Tipperary and Limerick, terminating at the Dunkettle interchange in Cork City. First called for in the Road Needs Study (1998), it was later incorporated into the National Development Plan (2000–2006) and later still formed part of the Irish Government's Transport 21 plan for infrastructural development. The majority of the M8 (115 km) was built between 2006 and 2010. On 28 May 2010, the motorway was completed and had replaced almost all of the single-carriageway N8 except for a short section of urban road in Cork City.
In Ireland, the highest category of road is a motorway, indicated by the prefix M followed by a one- or two-digit number. The motorway network consists entirely of motorway-grade dual carriageways and is largely focused upon Dublin. There are also several three-lane motorways, while Ireland's busiest road, the M50, incorporates four-lane, five-lane, and six-lane stretches.
The N40 road is a national primary road in Cork City, Ireland. It is partial ring road skirting the southern suburbs of the city, from the N22 west of Ballincollig, via the Jack Lynch Tunnel under the River Lee, to the Dunkettle Interchange where it meets the N25 and N8/M8. The present N40 designation was created on 23 February 2012 via statutory instrument by renaming parts of the N22 and N25. The N40 serves as both a commuter route and a bypass of the city centre for traffic between parts southwest and east. The National Transport Strategy envisages building a "Cork North Ring Road" to complete the circuit in the 2030s.
Wilton is a suburb of Cork City. It is the site of Cork University Hospital, Cork's largest hospital. Other landmarks include Wilton Shopping Centre and St. Finbarr's Cemetery, which lies on the border between Wilton and Glasheen and is the resting place of some of Cork's most notable citizens.
