New bus tour lifts the lid on working life inside Dublin Port

Irish Independent

23-05-2025

If you've ever wondered what goes on beyond the tall fences and busy terminals, a new guided bus tour now gives the public a rare front-row seat to the heart of Ireland's busiest shipping hub.
Running every Wednesday throughout May and June, the hour-long tour peels back the curtain on the sprawling 300-hectare site, where €165bn worth of freight and over 1.6 million passengers move through each year.
Visitors are taken past towering container ships and oil depots, and lesser-known corners such as the Brexit inspection yards.
'It's really about letting the public in to see just how busy the operations are that go on here,' said Lar Joye, Dublin Port's Heritage Director.
'We get a mixed crowd, retired Dublin Port staff, locals who've been looking in at the port all their life, tourists, retired groups, even school kids.
'Before this, we only did tours if they were requested, but this summer we're testing it out properly.'
The tour begins at the Substation, a restored electrical facility perched above the original East Wall seawall from 1728.
Glass panels underfoot reveal the old granite foundations, a striking reminder of how the port steadily reclaimed land from the sea and extended eastwards.
But the real show begins once the bus rolls down Alexandra Road and into the restricted zone of Ocean Pier.
Here, the scale of the port comes into view as giant cranes swing into action, car carriers edge into tight berths, and customs officers oversee a non-stop flow of cargo.
The guide on our tour is Anthony Finnegan, who spent nearly three decades working here, beginning as an apprentice in 1979.
'When I started, you'd be put in the cranes for three months, then into the machine shop, then the marine section,' he said.
'It was a real education. I learned from some extremely good people.
'You could see some were here just for the job, but there were others who truly loved it, who had a real passion. That made a big impression on me and taught me so much,' he added.
Now retired, Anthony is often struck by how younger generations are rediscovering the port through these tours.
'I had kids the other day telling me their grandfather worked on the Ro-Ro jetty, and one girl said her mam's a stevedore, which is amazing,' he said.
'You get kids who've never been behind the gates before, and suddenly they're pointing out where their family worked.'
Along the route, the tour allows visitors to hop off at the Dublin Port Greenway, a two-kilometre walking and cycling path with sweeping views across the Dublin Bay Biosphere.
'When they see the Greenway, they're blown away, they've no idea it's even there,' Anthony said.
'There's still this sense of hesitation, people think they're not allowed into the port, even at the Substation. But we've done Culture Night, Open House Dublin, and people love it.
'Now we're saying: it's open. Come and see it,' he added.