Scheduled to take place on October 24, the 2021 edition suffered the same fate as the 2020 event which could not go ahead due to the initial outbreak of coronavirus.

In 2020, organisers said it did not feel it was advisable to hold a large event with "recent updates on modelling around COVID-19".

In late October 2020, Ireland was hit with a second small spike of cases before a major surge occurred after Christmas (December 25), with daily cases peaking at 8,227 on January 8 earlier this year.

Despite cases flattening out over the past few months, daily cases remain in the hundreds.

To date, there have been more than 275,000 COVID-19 cases in Ireland, resulting in the deaths of 5,000 people.

"It is with great regret that we are cancelling the KBC Dublin Marathon for the second year in a row," said Jim Aughney, race director of the Dublin Marathon.

"Despite vigorous evaluations, there are still too many unknowns to be confident that we could provide a safe event given the pure scale of the marathon.

"We have a duty of care to the runners, volunteers, suppliers and supporters.

"This will be extremely disappointing news for all participants entered.

"We want to thank them for their continued support.

"We have come to a critical point in our event planning when a final decision needed to be made.

"We took into consideration the recent updates on modelling around COVID-19 and the immense challenges of creating a controlled, safe environment for the KBC Dublin Marathon which has a footprint of 26.2 miles with 25,000 runners and 200,000 supporters who line the streets to cheer them on."

All entries for this year's race will either be deferred to 2022 or refunded by the organisers at a later date.

A virtual marathon will take place in October in its place.

Across the Irish Sea, the London Marathon is still scheduled to take place on October 3 in England.