These instructions are quite detailed, because people often get lost trying to find the conference venue. So if you're not familiar with Maynooth village, or with the campus, please take the time to find out how to get there in advance! We will do our best to have notices etc. up but can't guarantee their visibility, particularly in bad weather.
Getting to Maynooth village
There are directions to Maynooth online at http://www.nuim.ie/location/ireland_directions.shtml.
If you're coming by air, the simple thing is to take a bus to Dublin and get off at one of the stations. If you get the 746 (normal fare) you can ask the driver to let you off at Drumcondra train station (after 30 – 45 minutes depending on traffic), from which there are trains to Maynooth (sometimes these go further, to Longford or Sligo but it is only one line so you can't go far wrong!) every half hour or every hour, depending on when you arrive (travel time 35 minutes). The train will cost about 2.70 one-way.
Alternatively you can get the 747 or 748 express buses for €6 to Busáras, the central bus station (travel time between 45 – 90 minutes depending on time of day) from where it is about two minutes walk to Connolly Station, the head of the line to Maynooth (travel time about 40 minutes). There are many other possibilities but this is the most straightforward. There is little or no direct public transport to Maynooth from the airport, and taxis are expensive (expect to pay at least 40, probably more, and take an hour or so).
Finding the conference
Our central location is the Auxilia Building, home of the Sociology department. This is on the north (new) campus, which may be helpful if you get lost. We strongly suggest you print out some of the maps which are online at http://www.nuim.ie/location/index.shtml, because people do often get lost. (There will also be a film festival happening in a different building nearby, which may or may not help – if you get to that building instead, you are within 2 minutes of the conference.)
From the train station, it takes 10 – 15 minutes to get to Auxilia.
There is an overall map of Maynooth at http://www.nuim.ie/location/webmaps/index.shtml. Getting off at the train station, make sure you exit through the station building, and then turn left to take the footbridge over the canal. If you turn right and just keep going straight, you will curve around the canal, go down an often busy lane beside a pub and a police station, then across the road at the traffic lights and past a string of shops. Keep going (over another bridge) and turn left around the shopping centre. Go down this road for a hundred meters or so and cross at the pedestrian lights (you can see a footbridge over the road ahead).
If you go through the gap in the wall you are now on the north campus. There is a map online at http://www.nuim.ie/location/maps/north.shtml. On this map, this entrance brings you in around the P in the top right-hand corner of the map. The footpath divides in two almost immediately: take the left-hand fork until you come to the internal road, and then follow that around to your right. Take the first turn left off this road (past what is currently a building site) and Auxilia is the first building on the right (you go through a small car park).
For those of you staying in Maynooth, you may find the map at http://www.nuim.ie/location/maps/estates.shtml useful.
