While in Blighty I read a brief but entertaining piece in [HM] Independent newspaper [a piece that doesn’t seem to be available online] saying that the Sean O’Casey pedestrian bridge, which spans the Liffey in Dublin, cannot be opened because the remote control has been missing since 2010.
The story doesn’t seem to have had much coverage in Ireland, but The Journal seems to have originated it; it has been picked up by MSN and there is discussion at boards.ie, although I don’t know that many people will be inconvenienced by the inability to get tall vessels into a relatively short stretch of water.
Irish waterways history 
Sounds more like a Telegraph or Daily Mail Paddy bashing story.
Surely apocryphal,
Though I did hear at the time of the last city floods that they couldn’t find the key to the new flood gates.
Again I would hope apocryphal.
Its strange that while we happily tell these stories amongst ourselves once a foreigner repeats them we get upset.
I’m not inclined to doubt TheJournal. bjg
not true.i have seen it open once in the last year.i have seen a large naval vessel west of it within the last year and stood watching it open in late 2011/early 2012.as far as i can see they test run it every couple of months.it is impressive to watch as it actually lifts up and then swings. just like the effin’ bridge it requires one man to push a button and an inordinate amount of grim faced overtimers in hi-vis jackets with walkie talkies to stand guard like the waffen ss.i will forward some pics of the operating booth at some stage.
sorry.scratch that last comment.my brain is a piece of c**p.i was blathering on about sam beckett bridge.which i must send photos/video of anyway.
I was wondering …. Photos of Sam would be very welcome anyway. bjg
Can they not buy a One for All™?
Or even a TV-B-Gone. bjg
With the Web Summit having been on in Dublin these last few days, I’m sure that could have had an ethical hacking competition to see who could get it to open sans remote control!.