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Updated 22:30
THE SÉAN O’CASEY BRIDGE, which spans the Liffey between the IFSC and City Quay, is currently unable to open to shipping.
Commissioned in 2002 by the Dublin Docklands Development Authority, the footbridge was designed to improve pedestrian connections in the area — at the time a rapidly expanding section of the city.
Like the East Link, and later addition the Samuel Beckett Bridge, the steel footbridge is designed to open to shipping — allowing sail craft and other vessels upriver as far as the Talbot Memorial Bridge.
The design includes two 44-metre-long arms, capable of swinging open, and closing again when required.
That operation is controlled by remote control – technically a “remote radio hand held pendant key”.
TheJournal.ie understands that key was lost in 2010.
A spokesperson for the DDDA did not respond directly to the question of the lost key, but confirmed a “lack of funding” meant a bridge opening hadn’t been possible for some years.
According to a statement:
“We have continued to maintain the bridge from a Health and Safety perspective.
“We currently have an engineering review ongoing which should result in a Bridge opening in the coming months.”
The Seán O’Casey pedestrian bridge [Photocall Ireland]
Minister for Local Government Phil Hogan announced last year that the Dublin Docklands Development Authority was to be wound up, following the publication of a damning report by the Comptroller and Auditor General.
The report highlighted failings in the Authority’s decision making processes surrounding its decision in to become involved in the purchase of the former Irish Glass Bottle site in Ringsend.
Samuel Beckett
There have also been problems with another of the city’s Celtic Tiger-era bridges recently. Earlier this month, an issue arose as the swing-section of the Dublin City Council-controlled Samuel Beckett Bridge was being closed.
The cable-stays that support the structure had expanded slightly while it was opened to allow a ship through, meaning the mechanisms couldn’t reconnect immediately when it was closed again.
Tugboats with high-powered hoses were called in to spray the cables down, cooling them so the bridge could reconnect as normal.
The Council said at the time that the event “wouldn’t be untypical” and that the cable-stays were due to be retensioned in the coming months.
Tugboats spray the cable-stays at the Samuel Beckett Bridge [Image: Benjamin Lawlor]
First published 07:00.
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Someone lost the key. You couldn’t make it up.
They didn’t make a second key? FFS
Perhaps we could pay PwC or the like to perform a detailed report on the stuff found in the back of the couches of all key holders?
Somebody also “lost” the Phoenix Park entrance gates after they were removed in 1937 to make way for the crowds attending the Eucharistic Congress. Careless or what?
I fully support bringing in PwC to do something. Anything. Our money belongs with top notch audity folk like that.
A tenner says it’s stuck between sofa cushions. That’s where I always find the TV remote when Mammy says she lost it.
Nothing will ever be done in this country, until the comfortable óinseachs in charge begin to suffer.
Unfortunately, that is our job,
And remember, voting is only an illusion, – sheep choosing wolf A, B, or C.
What we need is a 5-point plan,
Change we can believe in,
Transparency in government,
Yawn…
Obviously Bertie has it out in the office in Drumcondra.
I’m sure they could hire a few boys from ballymun or finglas to pick the lock whenever they need to open or close the bridge. . .
It’ll be a great little country when it’s finished….
Paddy wackery of the highest order. Stupidity + greed + incompetence = Irish public services / semi state
… And more than likely with a pinch of corruption.
Think you might find that this was built by a private contractor
Is there another type of contractor ?
No shit Sherlock Bertie Ahern hardly built it
Berties version of Brewster’s Millions. Spend as much as you can so you can plunge the country into debt and please our Asset Strippers. Then retire a multi-millionaire who refused to investigate the black flights through Shannon and receive payment via his daughter’s world record signing for publishing her first novel and then a few more million for movie rights to said novel (Which is a brutal piece of work tbh).
Thanks Bertie, you owe us one.
Bertie has €150,000 a year reasons not to give this debacle a thought !
Let us nit forget the self cleansing Spike which costs thousands to clean every year , thanks Bertie !
Am I the only one that likes the spire?
I like the Spire but that doesn’t change the fact they promised that it wouldn’t need cleaning.
It is pandering to the low brow pub populist to place Ahern’s photo with this. Do people think that he had the key or project managed the building of the bridge.
He led the government that instigated projects like this to boost egos…. Very appropriate that we remember actually
It helped make the docks more accessible, which increased their value. Makes town a nice looking place which increases tourism and the appeal as a destination for investment. Projects like these were built to encourage people to get out and do, to achieve.
Not to ships though Seanie. You trolling plank.
Will you ever get a grip you deluded muppet.
This bridge is of no strategic advantage and it stands out like an eyesore with no keeping in line with the local architecture.
It’s a folly, just like the bloody eyesore jutting out of O’Connell street.
You are beginning to become as irritating as the other party trolls that vent for their party bile evert time someone mentions them.
When will you and your likes ever understand that altough your intentions are pure your actions are causing untold damage to your divine gods.
No go and take a few Bob martin tablets and crawl into a corner to lick your nads.
Nope Bilbo, I like the Spire too. O’Connell Street needed something and the begrudgers would never be happy with anything. So eff ‘em!
Paddy whackery……. Classic
Or to make money for developer and contractor cronies perhaps???
‘lost the key’…love it! only in Ireland, eh??!
That’s why we need more farmers in the Dail.
Is it 4 out of the 166 that are farmers. Can’t see why more would change it or why less would change it or why more of any would change anything.
we need more teachers in the dail!
your both wrong, we clearly need more LOCKSMITHS in the dail !
What City is stupid enough to purchase a bridge with a “pendant” sized key – and not ask for a few spares. Oh, Dublin…
We need more Irish people in the Dail !
I’m sick of all these Europeans going around pretending they are Irish !
Okay okay, there’s clearly a lot of very cranky people this morning. There’s no panic!
Now…. Who had it last and where’s the last place you remember seeing it?
It’s always in the last place you look ;-)
Maybe it was left in Berties Bowl!! :)
Are St Anthonys relics still in the country? My aunt swears by him, a great man to find anything lost!
pray to st anthony!
…that de one on the M50?
Anybody else feel betrayed by the lotto add?
The headline is a bit off. Can’t open the bridge because of a lost key fob, rather than no funding.
The manufacture was farmed out and the manufacturers/installers should be standing over a warranty.
This stinks to high heaven of backhanders.
Dont be so harsh ! Maybe some of the good men of fianna fail made a few quid out of it !
That is only bile Lorcan.
Where is the evidence that this was not above board or do you just smear any party who is above SF in the polls.
The problems in your life are down to your own failings.
Seanie you need a minute on the naughty step to think about how to play nicely.
So he should be let spread misinformation and smears at will, is it?
@ seanieryan. .. You want proof that there was backhanders and dishonesty involved..
Four words.
bertie
ahern
fianna
fail.
Need we say any more.
I’ve taken a screen shot of that Mike and will forward it on to Bertie Ahern and FF’s Head Office. I hope they sue your nasty ass for everything you have. Poisonous old wasp.
Being “Libertaran leaning” is incompatible with being an FF supporter.
@ seanieryan.
You better make sure you do that .
You have made a threat on a public forum you idiot so you had better follow through.
I am so looking forward to seeing the gob@hite behind the profile.
@Seanie. Hahaha!, you really think they’ll sue anyone over that or even consider it. I would say the head brass at FF probably have more respect for someone like Mike than they have for one of their own misguided foot-soldiers like you.
Jayus if FF could sue over that Gerry Adams and SF would have a field day on this site!
Mike. It is not on saying that it was corruption that had this bridge built. That is tarnishing every from the Minister, to the builder, to the buyers, planners etc as possibly being tainted by corruption cause who dunnit.
Maybe my response was petulant, I apologize for that.
Seanie I’m no fan of Fianna Fáil, but I will say you would have a better chance reasoning with a plank of wood than Mike, he’s just a Sinn Fein hack who complains about everything and never puts forward any alternative ideas, just like his party.
Was it not Fianna Fail who appointed a tax-dodging politician to the P.A.C. ?
Start as ye mean to go on lads , now off with ye and check the death notices I’m sure ye have a funeral to go to at my expense !
@ mahon.
So because I wouldn’t urinate on ff/greens/fg or lab if they were on fire I’m a sinn feinn hack.
The fact that my family were deeply rooted in fg with an ex minister.
The fact that I voted for this cancer of a government as a protest vote but know what !.
Thanks to muppets like you and the other party a@se lickers I bloody well will vote for Sinn Feinn.
Your not the first fianna fail person to apologise but at least this time it won’t cost me , you and future generations billions !
Seanie needs a lot more than a minute on that step.
Pot, Kettle……
Ah , the real face of Fianna Fáil appears.
So two of the three bridges in Dublin that open to shipping cannot currently open to shipping?
Becket can still open, but you can only close it again when it’s cold. It’s like a clapped out old car or a dodgy front door. Uncharacteristic Irishness from the Dutch who built it.
Why is this story only surfacing now?!
It’s been blatantly apparent that the Sean O’Casey bridge no longer opens ever since it was left unused for the Tall Ships Race, probably the only ever time that would warrant opening it.
I wouldn’t be surprised that the mechanism has seized up beyond use.
What a country! Such a joke of a place! So once the key is lost or damaged that’s it?! Only in Ireland!
Get the local kids to have a go at it – given all the bike locks they bust open everyday it should be a piece of cake…
Anyone got Alec Guinness’ number?
This is beyond a joke … one fob !! Even a Used car comes with at least two fobs … And people ask why we are the butt of stupity jokes throughout the world.
Monorail monorail monorail!!!
Mono ……………. D’oh!
The key is in a brown envelope awaiting money up front
Shameful
I’m in a bit of a rush today so if you’re going down the Galway road, please don’t slam the door after you at Moate.
Seriously this can not be a true story. The likihood that if only one key fob existed (unlikely) that even undoubtedly encrypted, the algorithm would be known to the company and thus retrievable. Also wouldn’t be that hard to replace the RF module. So i would be high sceptical that of the truth of this piece
DDA Funding issue… More like ‘we’re going to be disbanded’ issue…
Not to mention that the RF module interfaces with a electrical and mechanical method of actually opening the structure.
So a simple manual switch could be put in place of the RF module!
Its a lack of funding.. meaning they cant pay the electric bill to open the bridge, like so many people in ireland
#empathy
Why did’nt Dublin city council do what everybody else does and get a spare key cut,but a bridge stuck open because it expanded sounds like an Irish joke.
It’s like the rest of us in the country ” broke”
…..did they try down the back of the sofa?
…yes, but all they found was Cardiff’s underspend!
I was wondering why the tugboats were out that day
I know FG love nothing better than passing the blame onto the last government But FFS the key was lost on FG Hogans watch and yet FF are still to be blamed. Don’t you just love Ireland ,
It was lost in 2010…. Remember that year. The blackest year in Irish history. Yeah, that one.
The key is only “resting in my account” untill tat is sumone gives me a bung ten yous can hav it back! But im keepin the other 10 million i robbed of the irish people.
What have you ever done for the Irish people you waste of space.
And what have you done for the Irish people Séan? … apart from outwardly supporting the people who have through mass incompetency, corruption and populist politics have ruined our great and once proud little nation. Mr.Trainee accountant should make a few calculations of his own and realise he is wildly out of touch with reality in almost all of comments and should give his fingers a rest from typing for a while and should maybe use those fingers to unplug his head from his rectum.
Well that escalated quickly eh Seanie lol
Infacta, bleedin spanners
Panic over, the key if currently in the possession of a Fr Ted Crilly on craggy island, after being retrieved from one Fr Damo.
What must the tourists think of us…
Even a car has a spare set of keys haha
Why is it that even the most simplest of things like keeping hold of a key to operate a bridge ffs has to be a f*** up in Ireland? Is there anything that the civil servants and idiots who run the country can’t mess up? Nothing ever works like it’s supposed to, two bridges messed up, the country in the toilet, a dysfunctional political system which relies on nepotism and cronyism, the health system is meltdown, education system failing, unemployment amongst the young out of control yet Ireland has the best paid politicians and quangos in the western world, gold plated politicians, they must be real geniuses to command the kind of salaries and pension pots they walk away with, the bill for ex taoisigh alone is over €9million a year and that doesn’t include the rest of the parasites. http://www.fairocracy.com/facts_and_figures/current_cost_of_ex_tds_and_ministers_yearly_pensions_in_ireland.html
what about the Jobs – bridge… I bet ya they say that’s working a treat!!!!
Ask Bono. Didn’t he get the key of the city. That should open any lock.
he’s too busy herding his sheep on St. Stephen’s Green ; the recession has hit us all very hard you know !
In a way it’s ironic that they named it after O’Casey, who was sickened so much by the pettiness of Irish life that he went to live in England.
On the other hand, “Juno and the Paycock” is about people who mistakingly thought they came into loads of money which they immediately squandered, so it’s the perfect metaphor for the Celtic Tiger years.
Unrelated but- love your name !!
Should have put it on a whistling key ring, they have them in the 2 euro shop.
Only in Ireland oh boy
3 of them meant to open to shipping…..bridge too far
and to think its only last week that there was a discussion on here about ireland building a nuclear power plant ! can’t even look after a feckin keyfob let alone an nuclear reactor ! (after thought ) when they get a ‘new’ key or find the old one do you think the troika will lend us e 2.50 to buy one of the yolks you put on your keyring and ifyou lose your keys you whistle and it bleeps? not quite a second bailout but it could be usefull .
This is a ridiculous story, I don’t believe a word of it. If it needed to be opened of course it can be.
Anything to be said for another mass……….St Anthony
WHO is responsible ???? It seems like lack of accountability is a cancer in Irish Society – SOMEONE must have been responsible – name and shame please !!!
It sounds like a more complicated problem than a lost key fob if the cables needed re-tensioning after opening.
A lot of these types of huge one-off designs need tweaking.
Complex bridges often throw up major issues. Have a look at what had to be done to dampen the shaking of the London Millennium bridge.
The worst example ever was the Tacoma Narrows Bridge in the United States which became known as “Galloping Gertie” due to its tendency to go crazy in the wind.
It had a problem where the wind managed to hit the natural frequency of the structure causing resonance and it started to literally twang like a giant guitar string in slow motion until it eventually collapsed!
There’s some amazing footage of it on YouTube if you search for “Galloping Gertie” or “Tacoma Narrows Bridge”.
You’d have to wonder how an entire bridge could be dependent on one key fob though! *IF* true, you’d really have to wonder what’s going on!
It was the cables on the Samuel Beckett bridgecthat needed re-tensioning. The Sea O’Casey bridge is the one with no key. “The Bridge With No Key”, now there’s a title for a ballad!
What key is it in?
surely the keys under the mat :)
mat was made redundent in 2012.
The stupid clowns, that confirms to all just how the country is run.
Bertie ; the irish midas , everything he touched turned to sh1t!
did amyone check the river bank
Just like the Samuel becket bridge another waist of money
class pun !
They were up to their waists in brown envelopes.
Did it not open for the tallships?
No, they hired “contractors” to cut down the masts instead……., it only cost 72m as well, Just as well Bertie had all those spare chainsaws lyin around in the wardrobe that he could loan (hire) to the state eh?!!
No they hired a load of polish lads to lift the boats out of the water and carried them around the bridges … they were all on ……JOBSBRIDGE!!! LOL!
Well, it’s always in the last place you look
Alot done, more to do.
When we find the key can we re-name it;
Jobs (for the Boys) Bridge
Did you check the cloakroom in Coppers??
So someone’s walking around town with this key in his pocket and he or she’s thinking “what the hell is this for?” And when he or she’s standing waiting for the bus, on the quays is pushing the button to pass the time. Sounds like a clip from Father Ted.
ONLY IN IRELAND.
Has anyone taken the wibbly wonder ride on the James Joyce bridge ushers island lately, was walking over it the other day when a bus passed and i had to stop and tought thats not right it was bounching all over the place,they might want to check that one out! it cant be good for the surrounding buildings
Key lost on Quays key to unlocking key bridge. Okey?
Ah lads! Maybe if we all pray to Saint Anthony we’ll find the keys (sorry key!).
Oh! That gag’s been done already. I’ll get my coat!
Should a story like this be seen on the 1st of April
I found it very hard to get through this story without “Songs of Love” by Divine Comedy starting in my head.
You know what. You can keep blaming the public sector for these things. Keep cutting as we are all so overpaid and underworked. But dont moan when the service you need is slow or non existent.
have your say