FROM THE ARCHIVES:Petrol rationing came into force in Ireland early in the second World War, aka The Emergency, but only began to bite seriously in 1942 when all private cars were effectively put off the roads with a few exceptions and some unexpected results, as this editorial explained. – JOE JOYCE
THE MINISTER for Supplies [Seán Lemass] has allowed it to be known that petrol supplies simply are not available, and that, in order to maintain public transport services even at a curtailed rate, every drop of petrol and oil must be conserved. In these circumstances, it is the bounden duty of every citizen, who for one reason or another, has an official permit to run his car, to obey the law in spirit as well as in letter.
For most practical purposes, the only private citizens who are allowed to use their cars at all are the clergy, doctors, veterinary surgeons and midwives. These persons are entitled to a certain quantity of petrol every month, in order that they may be able to fulfil functions that are essential to the continued life of the nation; and it is all the more necessary that they shall restrict the use of their motor cars to purely professional purposes. Unfortunately, there have been signs already of a tendency to evade the law.
One professional man has had his motor licence cancelled because he used his car to visit a golf course. Six others have had their petrol allowances reduced because they sought permission from the authorities to drive to their local golf courses; and, of the one hundred and sixty motor vehicles that were counted at Leopardstown [racecourse] last Saturday, at least two or three were not hackney cars. For once, it would seem that the general public is co-operating with the authorities.
The illicit employment of motor cars, apparently, is the one aspect of the “black market” with which the average citizen has no kind of sympathy; and the police are being inundated with reports of cases in which private cars are being used in defiance of the law.
At the moment, many prosecutions are pending. The worst offenders seem to be the owners of vans, who are using commercial vehicles for private purposes. Certain clergy and medical men also are taking a chance. Doctors, whose private residences are at a distance from the town or city in which they have their consulting rooms are resorting to the simple expedient of affixing a brass plaque to the gates of their homes, thus keeping within the letter of the law, but obviously violating its spirit. Men and women played golf in Ireland long before such a thing as a motor car ever was heard of; and the professional man who uses his car in order to convey himself or his wife to his favourite course deserves little sympathy.
We are gad that the police are so vigilant, and even gladder that the general public is co-operating with them. Almost for the first time since this war began, there is evidence in Ireland of a growing civic spirit. Such a national manifestation was long over-due.
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