Air Canada meets growing demand for travel to Dublin with nonstop service from Vancouver

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      Vancouver fans of James Joyce no longer have to switch planes to reach one of the literary capitals of the world.

      That's because on Friday (June 10), Air Canada launched a direct flight from YVR to Dublin.

      The Air Canada Rouge service is on a Boeing 767-300ER aircraft, leaving at 3:05 p.m. on Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, and landing in Dublin the following mornings at 8:35 a.m.

      "We are pleased to add the only non-stop flights from Canada's West Coast to Ireland," Benjamin Smith, president of passenger airlines at Air Canada, said in a news release. "We continue to strategically expand our Vancouver hub, and our seasonal Dublin flights follow our recent launch of non-stop flights from Vancouver to Brisbane, San Diego, Chicago, San Jose, and the doubling of our daily flights to London Heathrow."

      Dublin is perhaps best known as the birthplace of James Joyce, who set his landmark 1922 novel Ulysses in the city. His 1914 short-story collection Dubliners and his 1939 novel Finnegans Wake also featured characters in his hometown.

      Legendary playwright, novelist, poet, and essayist Oscar Wilde was also born in Dublin, as were literary giants George Bernard Shaw, Samuel Beckett, Bram Stoker, Jonathan Swift, and William Butler Yeats. It's an incredible tradition unmatched by any city of its size in the world.

      Dublin has also distinguished itself musically. One of the most famous bands in the world, U2, found its voice there. Sinéad O'Connor, Thin Lizzy, and former Georgia Straight music editor and philanthropist Bob Geldof also hail from Dublin, which remains one of Europe's premier hotbeds of live music.

      Sitting at the mouth of the River Liffey, metropolitan Dublin has a population of nearly two million, making it slightly smaller than Metro Vancouver.

      Links increase between Ireland and Canada

      In recent years, there's been a significant increase in Irish immigration to Canada. A fair number of those from the Emerald Isle have settled in Vancouver's West End, giving a lively boost to the neighbourhood.

      In 2005 when the so-called Celtic Tiger's economy was still booming, only 224 people from Ireland obtained landed-immigration status in Canada.

      That increased to 1,977 by 2014 after the Irish economy had gone into a major tailspin years earlier. In 2008 after a series of banking scandals in Ireland and around the world, the country's gross domestic product shrank by 14 percent, causing widespread unemployment.

      The Vancouver Sun reported in 2014 that the the federal government doubled the number of Irish citizens between 18 and 35 years old who would be eligible to work in Canada for up to two years without a "labour market opinion". This has enabled Canadian companies to hire more skilled Irish workers.

      In 2010, according to reporter Tara Carmen's story, 4,000 came to Canada under this program, which offered the "International Experience Canada" visa. In 2014, Canada permitted 10,750 people from Ireland to obtain International Experience Canada visas. That was reportedly the highest number of any country apart from France.

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