Sir,- Colm O hAnluain (June 11th) bemoans our bipartisanship regarding imperial and metric measures, especially on the roads, where kilometres and miles jockey for position when measurements of distances and speeds are called for. Curiously, on the same date, your Times Past feature highlights the anomaly between Irish and English miles - the Irish one of 2240 yards being considerably longer than the English, at 1760 yards.
Now, do I spot a legal loophole here - one that could get tens of thousands of drivers off the hook, as well as being a virtual goldmine for legal eagles? The question is this: "Was the Irish mile ever officially abolished, or did it simply fall into disuse, overshadowed by the more universally-accepted English mile? If the latter could be found to be the case, with the Irish mile still on the statute books, would I not be correct in assuming that speed-limit signs, situated, as they are, on Irish soil, refer to the Irish measurement, rather than the English one? And, carrying this hypothesis a stage further, would it be possible that the driver of a vehicle travelling at an indicated 38 m.p.h. in a 30 zone (or, indeed, 89 m.p.h. in a 70 zone) might be perfectly legal in so doing?
Just wondering - Yours, etc., D. K. Henderson,
Castle Avenue, Clontarf, Dublin 3.