Getting to Dublin from GB & St Paddy’s Day

Flights take an hour. Taking the ferry- a bit under 10 hours. How much free time do you have?

It's St Paddy, if you are going to use the nickname.

The ferry journey via Holyhead (port still due to reopen on 16 January) is about 7 hours from Liverpool, not 10. 3 hours to Holyhead by train, 3 hours on the ship and an hour for ship check in and general connections stuff.

To the one hour flight time add the check in time at the airport and the time to the airport, you are closer to 4 hours.

At the Dublin end let's say time from the port or the airport is the same.

So in reality a 2 to 3 hour modal difference

If you are starting in North Wales the train journey to Holyhead will.be shorter, but add on train journey time to Liverpool airport and it becomes pretty even modally.

I'm in the same situation, basically, and chose Cork instead of Dublin. I don't have any specific information, but my gut tells me I don't want to be in Dublin on St Patrick's Day (just like I wouldn't want to be in Boston on St Patrick's Day). The (anticipated) cost and availability of accommodation alone was a deterrent for me.

Thank you for this great information, everyone!

@G3rryCee - I didn't think about that aspect. Great point. Cork is a bit far from where we'll need to be for departure flights back to the US, but it's a good idea to look elsewhere or consider the chaos.

@CJean - Thank you for the St Paddy correction. I don't want to stick out too much. Appreciate it!

@isn31c - This is a great timing breakdown. After I posted, I started doing the airport math and realized it would probably even out. Do you know what the Dublin ferry port to city transportation is like? Is it very far from the city? We were considering if this would be difficult without a car or if public transit is available nearby.

At Dublin Port there is a service bus, also Nolan's run a shuttle bus into the city, including all the way to Heuston Station for trains South and West. You can either pre pay that on the ship or pay by card on the bus.
They also call at Connolly station for trains north, including Belfast.
And always taxis waiting.
Any which way it is about 15 minutes ride into the city, on a really bad day it is maybe as much as 30 minutes to Heuston.
Nolan's wait for the ship If it's late.
I usually walk out to the end of the LUAS tram line at The Point, in about half an hour then the tram to wherever I am going.

@ isn31c Thank you so so much!!! Amazing instructions. I am saving these directly on a note in my phone for future reference.

I also see you are in the Lake District. I visited during a drive from Scotland to North Wales in early Nov 2021 and it was the most magical, autumn wonderland. Is it nice in March, or is everything still in bloom?

The temporary ferry timetable is on this thread- https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/wales/holyhead-port-re-opening-on-16-january

Nolan's shuttle bus #853 will thus now run at-
Dublin Port to Connolly, George's Quay, Aston Quay and Heuston- 0215, 0600, 0800, 1145 (to George's Quay only), 1400, 1745, 2000 and 2330.

Heuston (Parkgate Street, Stop 10996) to Dublin Port at 0040, 0250, 0640, 0840, 1230 (from St George's Quay, Stop 135111 only), 1440 and 1840

Port bound services also call at Batchelors Walk (stop 102111) ten minutes after Heuston and Custom House Quay [for Connolly] (stop 135271) 15 minutes after Heuston. St George's Quay (for Connolly) is only served by the 1230 service.

Note- Contactless methods like google pay are not accepted.

Fares are 3 Euro to all locations except Heuston which is 4.50 Euro.