Weekend weather and travel details for NI and Dublin over three days packed with events

While most places in NI tonight will be dry and cool with clear periods, it may become cloudier and milder in southern Armagh and Down later on Friday with perhaps some patchy light drizzle. Light winds and a minimum temperature of 6 °C are also due.

The Met Office has predicted that Saturday morning will bring thicker, cloudier weather in the southern regions of Northern Ireland at first, but that will soon clear, and the majority of the province will have a bright day with sunny spells.

The national forecaster also said that most places should stay dry, but that there might perhaps be a few light showers towards the North Coast.

Maximum temperatures are thought to reach 18°C, and Sunday is predicted to (hopefully) be around the same.

Meanwhile, for thousands of fans heading to the Taylor Swift Eras tour in Dublin – with shows spanning Friday, Saturday and Sunday – Met Éireann says the Irish capital could have mostly clear spells, with the lowest temperatures dropping to just between 8-11°C.

Sunday could see some showers, but so far it’s too early to tell.

The weather forecast came as Translink announced that it is set to have carried more than one million passenger journeys this week thanks to special services for the busy event weekend.

“Translink will carry almost 1.2 million passenger journeys this week as a result of a range of enhanced and special services bringing people to a wealth of major events across Northern Ireland and Dublin,” the NI public transport provider stated.

To put this number in context, the total population of Northern Ireland is some 1.9 million, so it is the equivalent of almost two-thirds of the population making a journey on public transport.

Additional Translink services have provided an extra 30,000 passengers journeys, with many selling out.

Major events include Belsonic concerts in Belfast, the Foyle Maritime Festival in the North-West, the three aforementioned Taylor Swift concerts in Dublin, four GAA senior football quarter-final matches at Croke Park and Pride in Dublin.

Dublin also is hosting two gigs in Fairview Park, three days of the Longitude music festival, three gigs in Trinity College, Shania Twain’s concert in Malahide, and the League of Ireland game between Shelbourne and Galway United.

Translink’s Director of Service Operations said: “Over the week Translink will complete some 900,000 passenger journeys by bus and around 270,000 via train. This is a huge number and we have utilised all available resources and capacity to deliver this number of journeys.

“It is great to see so many major events this weekend and so diverse in nature and audience. We wish everyone a safe and pleasant journey and hope they enjoy their concert, match or festival – or just a day out.

“With so many young people out and about over the weekend, I want to remind them to take care, follow safety instructions, remember zero emission buses are very quiet and, in general, to just stay alert in and around public transport and ‘Play it Safe’.”

Due to the number of events in Dublin this weekend, the majority of Translink’s Enterprise services are sold out, including the 7pm and 8.50pm trains from Dublin on Saturday evening, with limited capacity remaining on Sunday evening.

“We strongly advise customers to pre-book tickets when travelling to/from Dublin this weekend to avoid disappointment,” a Trabslink spokesperson added.

“Special event travel, including late night services, operate outside our regular timetabled buses and trains and are priced separately.

“Translink is also operating enhanced Metro and Goldliner timetables throughout the summer as infrastructure works for Belfast Grand Central Intensify.”