The Garda age card is a bit of a farce ... isn't it

Jeremy Sproket

I just found my garda age card under a drawer full of rubbish. I forgot about it and hadn't used it in ages.

I remember how idiotic the whole set up was.

I arrived in Ireland when I was just over 18 and I had difficulty accessing alcohol with my Swedish ID card and driving licence and I didn't want to lug my passport around. So I applied for a Garda age card, I was already over 18 at this time. For me, as I was already over 18, it was fairly seamless.

For some of my friends and acquaintances who were still 17, they had issues.

Primarily, they had to wait until they actually turned 18 before being allowed to apply for the card, which would have snookered a lot of people who wanted to have a few drinks on the night of their 18th birthday and they had no other ID o didn't want to bring their passport on a night out.

It's logically inconsistent.

The date of birth is printed on the card anyway, so what harm would it have done to allow a person to apply a few weeks before their birthday so that they can have it on the day of their birthday.

Secondly, if they are only issued to those over 18 and the sole purpose is to allow the bearer to purchase alcohol, is the DOB not a superfluous piece of information?

The card is flimsy as hell too. The lamination (into which the photo is incorporated) is peeling from just being in the drawer for a few years.

Dramatik

I got mine as soon as they were initially released and the quality of it is shocking, it looks like it's been left in a shop window in the sun for years, despite it literally never seeing any light, as it basically just sits in my wallet. There is a big streak through the picture of my face which was present when I first got it and the printing quality is just terrible anyway. Bunch of de-lamination as well and the harp hologram on it has almost completely disappeared. Mine actually looks like a poor quality fake ID.

Esel

How old are these deteriorated cards?

RedCardKid

Remember one of the lads (father was a Garda) coming into school with a photographic id which had been issued and stamped at the local station. Well low and behold, every 5-6th year pupil had a better looking one two weeks later. One of the lads in the class had his sister recreate it and they were selling them for a fiver and discos were full of underage drinkers. Great times in the late 90s.

Gregor Samsa

I never had a Garda Age card, but I remember going into a bar in Minneapolis in the US in my 30s and being stopped for ID at the door (as is the custom). I produced my tattered pink paper Irish drivers licence, and after examining it, the girl said “Ok, fine. But don’t show that thing to the barman. He’ll rip it up and throw it back in your face”.

Feisar

https://boards.ie/discussion/comment/117636728#Comment_117636728

I remember me and my friend knocking out driving licences, they were feckin' great, too good in fact, unless you held it up to the light to look for a watermark it'd pass as real. Scanned to perfection, into town for photos, little stickers where yer name went. Harp decals printed out out on the contact paper one can print on. Ran one of the edges on a perforater yoke. It looked the biz.

YellowFeather

Ah - it’s grand. I still have mine and, up until recently when I got a passport card, I’ve used it as id when asked on trains, occasionally when asked in shops (getting less frequent these days though! :)), or even for my access to client sites. The dob is useful verification information, and, I’ve even used it in places in the States where you need to be 21 to get served in a bar. Your mileage may vary with these ones though.

Thread reminds me though of our fake ids. Think it was some bus card where you could easily remove the top layer with all of the text on it, but keep the photo. With a bit of high tech Microsoft Word text placement, some of that clear plastic cover stuff that we would use for school books, and a very patient library assistant who would let you use their printer- bam - into the nightclubs you go.

Good times!

YellowFeather

Edit: Ah. So that's how you can make an empty post. 🧐