Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
AFTER WEDNESDAY NIGHT’S astounding result, Irish fans are faced with the happy task of travelling to Lyon to watch Ireland compete against the host nation France this Sunday 2pm Irish time (3pm in France).
For fans who are already in Lille, the journey will take them almost 700 km through the heart of France, and although there are a few ways to make it down to the Rhone-side city, none of them are particularly cheap.
Added to this is the cost of tickets for the match, which went on sale this afternoon, and are now sold out according to the UEFA site. Viagogo are selling the remaining tickets, but at almost five times their original price, and with less than a hundred tickets left as of this afternoon. The FAI are currently in negotiations with UEFA to try and secure additional tickets.
A spokesperson for the Irish League of Credit Unions told TheJournal.ie that credit unions across the country were already reporting a spike in people enquiring about loans this morning, and although this doesn’t differ from previous sports tournaments, it will involve bigger sums.
Euros 2012 saw an average credit union loan of approximately €3,000, but this was without qualifying for the Round of 16, so credit unions are expecting to see requests for larger loans, as well as an increase in the number applying, as fans hope they will witness Ireland advance to the quarter finals in Sunday’s game.
So to try to make the journey that bit easier for you, here’s a guide to get started on the long path to Lyon.
By Air
For fans who are already in Lille, recent strikes by air traffic staff might have you concerned about your flight options, but with the journey taking just over an hour, a quick flight down to Lyon might be the best option. Flights from Lille to Lyon are marginally cheaper on Saturday, working out at around €298 with Air France, but as demand increases, the sooner you book the better.
For fans looking to travel from Ireland to Lyon this Saturday, finding the right flight is going to be tricky, as there are no direct flights until Tuesday 28th June. Ryanair and Iberia are offering one-way, one-stop flights for around €250, but this does involve the additional cost of flying out of Lyon on Monday. Iberia are offering the cheapest flights out of Lyon at €235 (with one stop-off) while Aer Lingus’ cheapest offering is €295, (with one stop-off); none direct and some taking up to 24 hours before landing on Irish soil.
Alternatives to these quite pricey and exhausting options include taking a direct flight to neighbouring cities such as Nice or Geneva, and renting a car the rest of the way. But with direct flights from Dublin to places like Marseille already sold out, time is of the essence.
By Train or Bus
For fans still in Lille, trains departing from Lille on Friday morning will take between 3-3.5 hours, and will cost you €81-€116. Although bus companies such as Megabus, Flixbus and Isilines offer fares from €20-36.50 from Lille to Lyon, the journey is not for the squeamish, as they can take up to 15 hours.
By Car
For the one in ten fans who are driving their way through the Euros in campervans, the journey will take the best part of six and a half hours from Lille, but the best three routes either involve a string of road works, or driving through the city of Paris. Not to mention all lines being increased tenfold by the tsunami of soccer fans travelling through France at the moment.
Car rental company Europcar’s offerings range from €50 for a mini to €100 for a mid-sized car, excluding add-ons; petrol will cost you approximately €80 in petrol each way, and tolls could cost up to €50, so avoid if possible.
Accommodation
Thanks to the city’s thriving tourism industry, Lyon is not short of accommodation, with most three-star hotels offering rooms at €165 for a double bed stay on Saturday. There are many Ibis Budget Hotels around the city offering luxury rooms as well as cheaper options.
If you have any recommendations on the best way you’ve found to get to Lyon, be sure to let us know in the comment section below.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Just another government shambles, but as they say, we will learn from this.
@John O Mahony: and hopefully not the hard way.
@John O Mahony: Do you Really think so? Yes when the Russian forces have decided a walkover of this country. A strategic target to begin the cakewalk of Europe. It is then we will see the people climbing back to their hovels with their tails between their legs, after hastily taking down the Ukrainian flags that are dotted around the country. Can you see Ukraine or any other countries hoisting The Tricolour if we were invaded. History has dictated that this will never happen. So why not mind our own business.
Ireland is the gaping hole in EU security. If it weren’t for the fact of the RAF and RN (we have no capability in our own economic zone should cables be interfered with), we would be s c r e w e d. And given Brexit we, an EU nation, have to rely on a third country for defence. An absolute shambles of successive governments have seen the DF weakened.
But sure, aren’t we neutral. Tell that to the Chinese and Russians, and any other would be aggressor. We are like the wimpy kid in the playground, always at risk to a bullies whims.
@AnthonyK: we’ve only ever had one government
@AnthonyK: I see your point but in regards a military it would take billions and billions to build up a military that would still be wiped out in a matter of days against a country like Russia. As regards NATO would they even take us?
@Paddy Ryan: further on that, is it exactly because we are the gaping hole in the EUs defence that we don’t have to spend enormous amounts of money on defence. They will be forced to defend us. A small country like Ireland needs to box clever. Maybe I’m completely wrong but Just a thought.
@James Delaney: The current government is, in fact, the thirty third Dáil Éireann.
@Paddy Ryan: Precisely!
This is what happens when you elect people who are not patriots. They leave the country defenceless.
@Brian Boru: The country is defenceless anyway and spending 58 million would just tell us we are all going to die>
It is outrageous that in this day and age we have absolutely no capability to monitor our territory, not to mention have any chance of knowing what’s coming at us. Neutral or not, that’s the least we should be able to do. It is time this was remedied, there are billions coming our way in corporate taxes, let’s use that rather than “eaten bread soon forgotten “ stuff.
@Mary Conneely: Primary radar doesn’t let you know what’s coming at us. It lets you know something’s there. It’s just a signal return off an object that is tracked. Secondary radar with transponders let’s you know what’s coming…… The radar is irrelevant in defense terms if you don’t have anything to catch up with the intruder to identify it. A PC9 won’t catch up with any jet. The IAA have primary radar AFAIK. The extent of which is not known as they don’t have it published on their website.
@Colm Kane: A huge waste of money in this day and age given our size, location and given the capabilities of any nation that would be an aggressor. Spend the money on patrol boats/search and rescue.
True neutrality isn’t cheap folks. Time to pony up.
@honey badger: we’re not neutral
Keep chipping away all you like, but no to Nato
@Duffy #35: they wouldn’t invite us unless our spend drastically increases, which no government will agree to. Currently spend just over 0.2% of GDP on defence, which would need to be increased to a minimum of 2%. I have seen no pressure whatsoever for us to join NATO.
@Duffy #35: We already have NATO de facto protecting our sea and skies. You can say NO all you like but would it not be better if we coughed up for our own equipment to defend ourselves?
Instead of saying “No to Nato” while happily letting them protect us. on their terms?
@goldiefish72: Their terms, they sound great they do the work, we dont pay for it and we are covered!
So, the cost of such a defence capability would be in excess of 300 Million Euro.
A quick cost benefit analysis might be in order. How much damage to the country has been done by not having such a defence capability? The answer is: none at all.
There are better uses for that 300 million Euro.
@Nestor: really? And you know this how?
Hmmm – “Ireland’s air policing security failure and how the British system keeps their skies safe”. Well I think we all know how Britain keeps their skies safe, they have the RAF. The headline should read, Ireland’s air policing security failure and how the British system keeps OUR/IRISH skies safe, unless of course the author is English and given his name, I doubt it.
@Ann Reddin: Thats all you took from the article? The Author is Irish!!
The headline is correct. The RAF patrol our skies to keep their skies safe. Because we can’t do it. Normal countries would protect their own skies, escort aircraft of interest through safely, then handover to the neighbouring Air Force who escorts it through their own skies.. Thats how Neutral Austria and Switzerland does it.
Maybe try reading beyond the headline before commenting?
Why would anyone go so far out of their way to attack/invad us? We don’t have anything that anybody wants.
@brian o’leary: Why would anyone attack/invade us? Because, given our geographical location, we are strategically important. If. let’s say, Russia decided to invade us tomorrow, that has Europe flanked on two sides, by Russia, Next stop if you head west is the US, and next stop to the east is Britain. So a great location if you want to start launching missiles or send war planes to either of those two “super powers”.
@Ann Reddin: You watched an old James Bond movie last night, didn’t you Ann?
@Ann Reddin: There’s no way Russia would be able to sustain supply lines from Russia to Ireland should they occupy us.
@David Corrigan: I wouldn’t watch a James Bond film if it was the only film ever made. Brian asked a question and I answered it. And if we weren’t that strategically important, then why are Russian u-boats constantly in our territorial waters.
@Ann Reddin: Russia or any other country for that matter has any interest whatsoever in Ireland Ann. The only reason anyone bothers with us is because we are a tax haven for multinationals. I think you can rest easy.
@Steve: it would all depend on how its viewed internationally. would any country care enough to implement a naval blockade. if not then russia could easily maintain an occupation force. plus russia gains the entire irish population as hostages to any foreign intervention.
@Ann Reddin: becase they are trying to get at the Royal Navy. We just happen to be in the way!
@brian o’leary: aside from the first airport that American reinforcements can fly to in Europe, and as Im sure you already know, quite often do so, using it as a refuelling stop. And enemy fighters based in Shannon can therefore intercept all American flights well to the west. Meaning US carriers would have to deploy to protect military transport, both air and sea. Or of course the deep water ports on the west coastfron Donegal to Bantry, ideal for submarine bases that have plenty of opportunity to annihilate shipping from iceland to Spain
@brian o’leary: Yes they do want something from us “Neutrality” which means minding our own business. The present regime in Dublin is making this very difficult. I spoke to a Ukrainian last week. He said that Ukraine and Russia are as bad as each other. When I see a Ukrainian flags floating from houses around the country I think how gullible we are. How much do we really know about the facts for a start. In fact we are leaving ourselves very open to invasion. This much I do know.
Ukraine shows us that manpads and javelins are the way to go. Adopt to guerrilla tactics instead of a standing army that could be wiped out in a day..
@Bart Teeling: what you do not realised is that the Irish defence forces are classed as one of the best trained gorilla warfare armies in the world as everyone in the army is crossed trained in all weapons among a lot of other things
@Pól Ó Broin: Nonsense. Pub talk.
@Pól Ó Broin: Where in the world then have they carried out all this so called gorilla warfare, just name the locations and when.
@Bart Teeling: problem is the day of the flying column is gone. with drone surveillance, attack aircraft and thermal and night vision equipment a column of irregulars moving by foot that wasnt in heavy cover would be screwed
@goldiefish72: Fact, that is the way they have always been trained. My dad had his orders during the Emergency. Two dofferent sets, one if it was the Germans the other if it was the British. It was all gureilla tactics, hit and run, goes back to the war of independence and before.
@Rian Lynch: As shown elsewhere that is not quiet true. A small well trained force can inflict serious damage. For all the tech there is there is tech to block it.
@Pól Ó Broin: Help.
So our skys are full of unidentified flying objects…
We don’t have the population of a large city in the whole of Ireland.Lets not lose the run of ourselves.Opposition TD’S jumping up and down.Who did the think was protecting our skies,Eddie Rockets!
@Paddy Ryan – Ukraine proves the point that a well-trained army ie a NATO well trained army is a match for the Russians.
We could do deals with French, and Spanish forces, even have, as part of a wider EU army, their forces based in Ireland alongside our own.
Who was it again that invaded our shores last?
What happens if societal changes/breakdowns mean once again that it’s not the Russians we need to worry about.
Found money to beef up tds security, but no the country’s. Shameful greed. A case of screw you jack,I’m alright.
“Don’t squander the gold of your days, listening to the tedious, trying to improve the hopeless failure, or giving away your life to the ignorant, the common, and the vulgar. These are sickly aims, the false ideals of our age’.
WILDE
Of the 3 neutral countries listed in this article Ireland, Austria and Switzerland, Austria has Eurofighters and Switzerland has F-18 Hornets, Ireland is the only one without any jets. Just because we are neutral that does not mean we don’t need a proper air force and well equipped Defence force. Other countries that are neutral have large defence forces to protect their neutrality.
Ireland is an embarrassment when it comes to our own Defence.
Shambles
If our politicians stop sticking their noses in were it doesn’t belong then we’ve nothing to fear from anyone…the only two country’s that could realistically is the uk and the US….every other scenario is just fear mongering nonsense…
What a joke of a country, flying WW2 aircraft, can only intercept slow moving aircraft that moves at snail pace, they should let the RAF patrol Irish airspace, other wise if left to Paddies, forget it. Like underground Metro a pipe dream that will new be done
have your say