Motorways in the Republic of Ireland

National Roads Network as of 2018 (note that the M17 north of the M6 is incorrectly marked as M18)

In Ireland, the highest category of road is a motorway (mótarbhealach, plural: mótarbhealaí), indicated by the prefix M followed by a one- or two-digit number (the number of the national route of which each motorway forms a part). The motorway network consists entirely of motorway-grade dual carriageways and is largely focused upon Dublin. There are also several three-lane motorways, while Ireland's busiest road, the M50,[1] incorporates four-lane, five-lane,[2] and six-lane[3] stretches.

The completion of the Major Inter-Urban Motorway Project in December 2010, which saw Dublin connected to the cities of Cork, Limerick, Waterford and Galway by continuous motorway, as well as a number of other projects, increased the total length of the country's motorway network to 916 km. Planned new road construction will possibly lead to there being almost 1100 km of motorway by 2035, subject to the availability of funding.

  1. ^ Baker, Noel (20 September 2019). "M50 busiest road in Ireland as Cork Southern Ring Road's sees 80k cars each day". Irish Examiner. Retrieved 29 December 2021.
  2. ^ Limited, Alamy. "Traffic on the M50 in Dublin as phase one of Ireland's five phase exit plan was triggered on Monday Stock Photo - Alamy". www.alamy.com. Retrieved 29 December 2021. {{cite web}}: |last= has generic name (help)
  3. ^ Lodged, Laurel (29 March 2020), English: Normally at 4pm the M50 would be full of traffic on both carriageways but due to the government advised lockdown, people have decided to stay at home. The motorway is almost deserted. Next to junction 6 at Castleknock, retrieved 31 December 2021