That was totally legal, booking office unstaffed
Rule has a special condition for this where the member of staff who issues tickets needs to assist in the trains departure (s)he can authorise you to board with no ticket as to not delay the trains departure. Again you don't need to know this. In fact applying nothing more than common sense will see you safely through the system
If you can buy a ticket before you board you must, if you can't you must obtain a ticket at the earliest opertunity
There is nothing complex or confusing about the state of play, it is the same across most of world and is a perfectly logical state of affairs.
While there is no doubt that Irish Rail have been far from perfect, there have been serious increases in the number of TVM's starting from zero to almost every suburban station having at least one, a significant number are available outside the opening hours of the station
The booth in Connolly is postered with large signs clearly indicating fines will be issued. The law allows the member of staff to either issue the normal ticket or a fine depending on the situation. I have been through the booth in Connolly at least 3 times ticketless, even arriving in from broombridge, never a problem. This is the scenario which concerns us
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