Spot on Ken!
The Irish have a very idiosyncratic idea of place and how to get to one. Just
the other day I rang a company to find out where they had moved to. I was
asked if
I knew where King John's castle was and where the rugby grounds were and
perhaps
another landmark I do not recall. Given those I was then given the standard X
turnings right, Y turnings left routine and "we're at the roundabout".
Now there is nothing very unusual in that you might think but I then asked what
the
name of the street/road was. She didn't have a clue - just repeated the
directions.
I am probably the only person in Limerick who actually has a street map.
Given the
directions I was able to locate the road - and its name - on the map.
She didn't know the name of the road her business was located on. The Irish
don't
think like that. Roads are always designated by their destination so if you
are in
Limerick a place might be located on the Thurles road or if you are in Thurles,
on
the Limerick road.
There is a national road numbering system similar to that used in the Uk. Do
you think the locals are aware of or use the system - hahaha. The main trunk
road
leading to Dublin is designated the N7. I recently asked someone if such and
such
was along the N7. As expected they didn't have a clue what I was talking about
-
"Oh! the Dublin road..."
You might think this scheme of route designation perfectly reasonable but there
is a
twist.
You are driving along and a sign points down a road for Kilmacow(real). Is
Kilmacow
the next place you come to? You must be joking! Kilmacow will be in the next
county with at least five intervening towns and villages, some of which will be
larger than Kilmacow. Not only that, but if you actually look at a map the
road
does not lead to Kilmacow by any obvious contiguous route - no way - you would
have to make several abrupt course changes at intervening towns or cross roads
and
head off in a completely different direction to that you might have first
thought.
So to be able to benefit from such a system of signage while driving along you
must
first have a complete map in your head of the whole region to make sense of the
sign. Then of course you didn't need the silly sign in the first place as you
already knew that to get to Cooraclare from Lisroe you take the Kilrush road,
go
through Glenmore then chuck a left at Creegh - didn't you?
Giles
PS apart from ill will towards cows there are also Kiltartan and my favorite
-
Kilbrittain. ;-)
Ken Norton wrote:
> At first I thought you lived in the UK or Ireland from that description.
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