Ireland’s longest commutes: tell us about your daily journey

For a variety of reasons ranging from housing realities to transport options, some people in Ireland are facing extremely long daily commutes.

Niamh Towey’s piece on Tuesday outlined one particularly gruelling schedule: that of Martha Gilheaney (41), who recently swapped her six-minute commute to work in Dublin city centre for a six-hour commute from her home in Leitrim because she felt it was impossible to buy her own place in the capital.

Elsewhere, earlier this month, The Irish Times carried a piece from Health & Family Editor Damian Cullen, detailing the 24 weekly hours he spends on trains between Dublin and Thurles.

These are not isolated cases: as Towey reports, a 2024 study that looked at the commuting habits of workers in seven small towns in Ireland and Northern Ireland found 45 per cent of commuters were travelling distances of 30km or more to work, with over half travelling for 45 minutes or more.

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The Irish Times is looking to find the longest commutes in Ireland, and would like to hear from readers.

Do you, or someone you know, have a long daily commute to work or college, for example? Perhaps the journey is a far distance; or maybe it’s a shorter distance that takes a long time do to public transport constraints or congestion – we would like to hear about both.

What type of transport do you typically take; or do you have to hop across a couple of different modes, amd how much of your day does it take?

And, importantly, why do you think your commute is so long? Maybe it’s public transport design, or a job with a rigid location, or, like Ms Gilheaney, you’ve found yourself in a position where living near your job is unrealistic.

You can share your experience using the form below. Please limit your submissions to 400 words or less. Please include a phone number for verification purposes only. If you would prefer to remain anonymous, please indicate this in your submission – we will keep your name and contact details confidential.

We will curate a selection of submissions for an article but please note we may not publish every submission we receive.