So here I am, back in Maynooth. I’d like to thank the members of the Astronomy Research Centre in the School of Mathematics and Physics at Queen’s University Belfast for inviting me and for stimulating discussions during and after my talk, and of course for the hospitality, especially the nice lunch and tea & cakes this afternoon.
The hotel I stayed in last night is very close to the campus, in the University quarter, and I got up early enough this morning to have a very substantial breakfast and walk some of it off by going around the campus before my talk. I took few snaps to prove I was there.
As you can see, it has a strong “red-brick” vibe about it and more than a hint of Gothic Revival, although unlike Maynooth’s version of that style, QUB’s has a distinctly Tudor tinge. My talk was in the buidling on the right, with the extravagant doorway/entrance hall, which is obviously of more modern design.
Anyway, a nice time having been had, I made my way back to Belfast Grand Central Station for the train home. This time we had a proper train which was actually big enough to accommodate all the passengers booked on it, and the seat reservations were showing.
All went well until we reached Dundalk (in the Republic) when the train stopped and officers of An Garda Síochána went through the train demanding to see everyone’s passport. I was shocked. I couldn’t help thinking of ICE in America, or even the Gestapo on which they are modelled. Nobody told me that I had to carry a passport on a train between Belfast and Dublin, so I never thought about taking mine with me on this trip. It was only by sheer fluke that it happened to be in the pocket of my jacket, which I had been wearing last time I needed a passport. I started to wonder what would have happened had I not had it with me, and then I thought they would probably have done nothing. After all, I am white…
The Common Travel Area has been steadily eroded over the years. Dublin Airport has long required passengers from the UK to go through immigration control (which it shouldn’t according to the CTA). More recently – since the end of September 2026 – ferry services between Ireland and Britain have started requiring passports to be carried. I never expected, though, that measures would be taken by the Irish side to effectively create a hard border on the island of Ireland. I don’t know when this policy was introduced. At the very least, Iarnród Éireann should warn passengers using the Enterprise service that they now need to take their passports with them. I wasn’t asked to show my passport on the outbound leg. There’s no passport control when flying from Dublin to the UK, either.
The search for migrants having been completed, the Gardaí alighted from the train and we carried on to Dublin, with a delay which meant I missed my connection to Maynooth. That wasn’t a significant problem, however, because I got on the next train, which was bound for Sligo and which gets to Maynooth significantly faster than the usual commuter trains, so it wasn’t too inconvenient.
