From the archives of Bob Montgomery, motoring historian
WARNING SIGNS: While motoring recently in Britain, I was struck by the road signage in all its manifestations, which I thought far superior to that in use here. Certainly, we would reap benefits, both in terms of safety as well as accessibility, if road signage were standardised in a consistent fashion across the EU.
In fact, road signs in Ireland owe their origins to the introduction in 1927 of the first set of uniform warning signs adopted for use in the then Free State by means of the 1925 Act.
Prior to this, signage was haphazard at best. The Motor Car Act of 1903 had brought into being the first major piece of legislation on road signs. The signs introduced in this Act were for indicating steep hills, crossroads and dangerous corners. The British government stated that these warning signs were to take the form of a red triangle while prohibition was to be indicated by a solid red disc. (For many years the only road in Ireland to carry this sign was the coast road between Portmarnock and Malahide which was considered too dangerous for cars. Parts of this road can be traced today in the pedestrian pathway which runs beside the current road).
It was left to the local authorities to decide which roads were deserving of these signs and to erect them. However, the great majority of local councils neglected their duty and it was left to that friend of the motorist - the Automobile Association (AA) - to tackle the problem.
From its arrival in Ireland in the middle of the first decade of the last century, the AA had erected the vast majority of signposts in Ireland. Because its resources were of necessity limited, the AA's focus was first of all on direction signage, with warning signs a poor second. The result was that many a motoring tourist who came to Ireland simply didn't return, citing - all too often - the lack of adequate signage, not to mention the poor roads.
The proposal to standardise warning signs from 1927 and make the local authorities responsible for their erection seemed a recipe for inaction to many in 1926. One anonymous writer in the Irish magazine, the Motor News, wrote somewhat tongue-in-cheek of the proposed designs for the warning signs:
"In deference to what is assumed to be a national aspiration, the signs are to be bilingual. Aesthetic considerations find their place in the regulations, for the posts are to be black and white in alternate horizontal bands, except for those marking frontiers, custom posts and 'approved' routes, which are to be a harmony in blue and white spirals.
"As to the warning signs, so long as they are uniform throughout the country, the actual device on each warning is a matter of little importance; but one cannot repress a sigh of admiration at the artistic symbols which represent the unguarded railway crossing and the school. The powerful locomotive positively commands caution; the conventional torch (or is it a firebrand?) boldly asserts the illumination of the infant mind, all innocent of the dangers which lurk on the busy high-road".
The greatest failure of the 1925 Act turned out to be that it was once again left to the local authorities to decide which roads were deserving of warning signs. Nevertheless, over the next 30 years, the designs introduced with the 1925 act were to become familiar sights on Irish roads with but few modifications, and were to represent the first significant attempt to produce standard road signs for Ireland, a process which is still ongoing.