September dates for rail strike

Hi folks, heads up on the continuing planned rail strike, affecting travelers as well as commuters in September

My wife and I are soon traveling to Ireland and last night were attempting to purchase tix online for the InterCity rail service, Athlone to Kilkenny, Sunday 21 Sept and were very surprised to find all trains listed as unavailable. Out of curiosity, we put in the route from Athlone to Dublin and all trains listed that date were indicated as sold out. As we found this a bit strange and unexpected, we sent email to Irish Rail to enquire about the sold-out and unavailable routes and received back this explanation of planned rail strike for the following dates:
"Iarnród Éireann advises customers that, due to threatened industrial action by NBRU (all dates listed) and SIPTU, it cannot guarantee any services across Intercity, DART and Commuter routes on the following dates:
- Sunday 7th September
- Monday 8th September
- Sunday 21st September
Online bookings are currently suspended for these days"

we also found this article on the strikes:
100,000 Commuters Affected by Rail Strike

thought this might be of interest to those who are traveling by rail

Extra buses have been put in place though.