A Bit of Nostalgia

Wishbone Ash

I came across these two today while looking for something else - a 1977 copy of the Rules of the Road and a 1975 information booklet for Learner Drivers.

They make for interesting reading. Drivers are encouraged to wear seat belts 'even on short journeys'. (Although all cars made after 1971 were required to be equipped with them, the wearing of front belts was not made compulsory until 1982). It recommends that children travel in the rear seats and advises against carring babies in the lap.

There is no mention of motorways and a very scant reference to dual carriageways. The minimum tyre depth was 1mm which probably meant nothing to those used to imperial measurements so they say it's the same as the thickness of a half-penny coin



Fine Gael TD for Meath, Jim Tully, was the relevant Minister in the Fine Gael - Labour coalition of the time. They were later heavily defeated in the FF landslide victory of 1977 under Jack Lynch.



Remember when the licences came with the little wallet?



Interestingly, trucks were subjected to a max speed of 40mph and 20 mph for a vehicle drawing 2 trailers.



The 1975 information booklet for Learner Drivers.



The categories were labelled differently then - car was category C and there wasn't a seperate licence/test for rigid and 'artic' trucks.



And some people think the accompanied rule is a recent restriction! Here it is in black and white in 1975 at the bottom of page 7!



The next time I'm at my mother's, I must get her to dig out her pre-1964 licence. That was in the pre-test era when you simply went into the Post Office and bought the licence over the counter. If she can find it, I'll take a pic and post it here.

AllGunsBlazing

Cool find.

I remember back in the 80's we had a rules of the road book lying around the house with that exact same cover, not sure what vintage though.

And things have certainly changed, my brother for example went straight for his truck licence (around 1987 I think it was) without ever having to take the car test. When the new categorizations were introduced he automatically got all the bus and artic categories as well without ever being tested for them.

Wishbone Ash

AllGunsBlazing wrote: »

I remember back in the 80's we had a rules of the road book lying around the house with that exact same cover, not sure what vintage though

AFAIK, that cover was used for many editions until the grey coloured one came in in the 1990s.

We had several at home. I recall a similar one with Sylvester Barret as Minister from around 1979/1980 IIRC. When the motorways came in after 1984, they had a photograph of the slip road from Santry onto the M1 northbound. It looks weird now as there was no vegetation around.