Galway In Days Gone By

Let there be light

The lighting laws are similarly daily outraged throughout the West. Whilst Civic Guards are frequently seen to worry motorists about rear lights, the fact seems to be ignored that the rear light must be red.

There are vehicles travelling throughout Co. Galway to-day whose rear lights are white; they are a nuisance to all fellow-travellers, and a danger as well.

Several cars carry only one front light. Lights “on the extreme outside of the car” as well as the two headlights are compulsory, according to law. In the case of slow-moving vehicles, the highway is often blocked for an unreasonable period out of sheer lethargy or out of a spirit of obstruction, and cars and carts travel as frequently on the wrong side of the road as on the right.

A driver of a motor car or of any other vehicle “must not wilfully hinder the free passage of persons or vehicles,” and must obey the rules of the road. There are people in the West of Ireland who appear to have but the haziest notion of the rules of the highway.

In every civilised country, these are rigidly obeyed and the sooner we learn them in Ireland – even if under the gentle suasion of district court fines – the better.

Pictured: St Joseph's College 'The Bish' Galway crew take to the water at Woodquay in their new Eight after it was blessed by Rev Dr Browne, Bishop of Galway, on November 23, 1975.