On our recent trip to Ireland, my sister and I decided to hire a car. Driving in Ireland, It’ll be grand. Yes they drive on the left, but we were confident we would adapt. My sister loves to drive, so she was the designated driver.
By default, I became the co-pilot. She’s an excellent driver, but this would be a whole new adventure. Through all of our research we determined that with our itinerary, gallivanting around by car was the best option.
My job became directional backup. Approaching roundabouts, “Stay left – Look right!”, our new mantra. The M (motorways) roads weren’t a problem. We stayed with the flow of traffic, mostly in the left lanes, and only passed when absolutely necessary.
The R (regional) roads, and L (local) roads, well now, that was a different story. The R roads weren’t too bad, though they often had no shoulder. That was a bit nerve wracking. When she started drifting left, “You’re on the line.” Still not bad and after a while we got good with these.
One morning we decided we would go for coffee. Our goal was to find a fun little coffee shop. I found a promising cafe and googled directions. As we turned onto the road, with a car behind us, the panic set in. OMG…
The right side of the road was lined with parked cars, facing both directions, as there was no formal parking area. They all had their side mirrors folded in. There wasn’t room enough to drive down the left “open” side. So we took a deep breadth, folded our side mirrors in, and followed the car in front of us.
Popping up the curb, we slowly squeezed our way down the hill, half on the narrow footpath and half on the road. About a quarter of the way down the hill, we saw our destination coffee shop. Unanimously, we agreed that after surviving this road, we would look for a different coffee shop with better parking.
The night before, our cousins had taken us to a lovely dinner and drove us around the town. As we approached the area in which our grandfather grew up, the road narrowed and our cousin laughingly informed us that it was a two-lane road, although there were no lines, and her car all but filled the width of the road . Wide-eyed, we took note.
Our most memorable moment was a road that started as an R road, then slowly narrowed. We hugged the shoulderless edge around numerous curves. Rounding a bend, coming head-on, a semi-truck loomed before us. As it approached, seemingly occupying the entire road, we sat horrified, willing ourselves to shrink.
We inched into the hedge and stopped. The driver leaned out his window and told us to drive on. Fearing there was no way for success, my sister politely declined, “I am not moving”. He said we must. Again she politely said, “NO”.
Hugging the hedge tighter still, we relinquished every possible centimeter of space. She folded her mirror in and we sat tight. He rolled his eyes and shook his head.
As he pressed forward, we held our breadth, expecting to hear the sounds of crunching and grinding metal. Like an expert surgeon threading a needle, he passed with mere hairs between us!
Following closely behind the truck was a car whose driver stopped to share the moment with us. We laughed with him as my sister put her hands up and said, “Sorry, foreigners.” We all three laughed again as he drove off. We sat for a few minutes to catch our breadth and wait for our pounding hearts to calm.
We felt we had been hazed and had passed to become an intermediate driving team. Off we drove for more adventures, paying particular attention to avoid L roads, and R roads unless they were going through towns or villages.
We will definitely drive again on our next trip. Ireland has far too many wonderful places to see and experience, that are best accessed by car.
If you plan to drive in Ireland, I do highly recommend that you consider the premium, zero deductible, insurance policy when you hire the car. Luckily for us, the precision truck driver we encountered, didn’t cause us to use it, but it did give us peace of mind to know that we had it.
The Irish are excellent drivers. They grew up driving the narrow roads and can navigate them beautifully. Stepping in from the outside, driving the country roads is not for the faint of heart. Take your time and pull off to the side if you feel you are slowing the experts down.
When hiring a car, you might also ponder opting for an automatic rather than a manual transmission. The manual is cheaper, but shifting with your left hand is not intuitive, even for those familiar with the clutch and shift routine. For American drivers, a manual transmission is an unnecessary distraction increasing the stress and mental fatigue of an otherwise fun experience.
Early in the week, our Irish cousins asked us how the driving was going. We felt we were adapting well to driving on the left. By the end of the week, the same question evoked a much humbler response. Laughs all round the table as we retold our encounter with the lorrie (semi-truck).
Driving in Ireland: It’ll be grand!