You’ve Got Ismail!

Driving… in Ireland

July 21st, 2006

In June, I was in Ireland for a week and stayed a couple of nights with Tom Raftery (that’s raf-ter-y, not raff-erty). The official reason for the trip was that I was speaking at the now-legendary IT@Cork event along with Shel Israel, Fergus Burns, Rob Burke and Walter Higgins. That’ll be my next post – this one is for more important matters.

I took the opportunity of the trip to Ireland to do three other things:
1 – Revisited some old haunts… exactly 10 years ago I was living there helping set up BUPA Ireland and I did a little reconnoiter with the place. Old pubs, restaurants, the old office, wiping a tear etc etc
2 – Had a pint of Murphy’s in Cork

3 – Drove across to the west coast to check out the scenery during two incredible weather days…

The driving in Ireland is heaven – tough little winding roads requiring extreme concentration and skill, and nobody’s on ‘em.. but when a car suddenly appears you have to be hugely nimble – here are a couple of interesting photos… (speed limit is 50mph/80kmh… nuts!). In a comment on one of my recent driving posts, Kareem Reemer points to a fascinating article about how they’re removing stop signs and roundabouts in suburbs in Holland because it actually makes people more careful… clearly they’ve been using that approach in Ireland for decades. Endless stop signs in North American suburbs are just a disaster from an ecological and time p.o.v.

On the Dingle Peninsula, I was able to drive right onto a deserted beach and here are a couple of shots of that (could be a car commercial!) – note how the tide came in and I had to hurry before the car drowned…

Entry Filed under: Blogging