FROM THE ARCHIVES:Fog mixed with coal smoke created smog which could reduce visibility in cities to practically nil, as on this Sunday evening in Dublin in 1952.
The worst fog that Dublin has had for several years rolled in from the sea last night, turning the city into a grey blur of obscurity, bringing chaos to its bus services, and forcing thousands of people to walk home. To walk through the city centre between 9.30 p.m. and 11 p.m. was a new and almost unreal experience. At the Westmoreland street-D’Olier street junction fog could be seen rolling past in waves from the Liffey, and getting past this intersection was a nightmare for traffic.
From the end of Westmoreland street it was impossible to see the footpaths at the near end of O’Connell bridge. Occasionally the fog would lift for a few seconds, and motorists would seize the opportunity to get across the bridge. Pedestrians had no warning of the approach of these cars; travelling slowly, they made little noise, and even the most powerful headlamps could not be seen for more than three or four yards.
O’Connell Bridge and its approaches were the most affected parts of the city centre, and motorists took the precautions of driving with windscreens raised or peering through the doors.
O’Connell street was a thoroughfare of blurred lights. The lights were on lamp standards or parked vehicles, but, normally bright, they appeared a dull yellow, and the usually solid objects to which they were attached were not visible. From the footpath it was possible to see about six or seven feet above one’s head, but after that the outline of buildings just disappeared. From the kerb, too, nothing could be seen of the statues in O’Connell street, and Parnell was not visible from the bottom of his monument.
Those with the greatest worry were the drivers and conductors of the city’s bus services, and certainly the most harassed men in the whole of Dublin were the C.I.E. inspectors, who tried to keep a service going. The fog, though it persisted all day, did not affect the bus services during daylight, but it was a different story when darkness fell. Gradually it grew worse until, near 8 p.m. the services were restricted to about one bus on each route every 10 minutes.
Many people who had seats booked in cinemas were unable to get in in time, and when they came out they had to walk home. When they came out of the cinemas and theatres buses were parked, and taxi-men refused to leave the ranks.
As more vehicles came in from the suburbs and others were abandoned in the city centre, the number of buses in O’Connell street grew larger until they were lined two abreast on both sides of the road. A few people remained at the [bus] stops, but most of them decided to walk home, and the tap-tapping on the pavements of hundreds of pairs of feet, together with coughing in an equal number of throats, told the story of mass penetration of the gloom.
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