Madam, – In the early 1950s, Bord Fáilte took over the task of signposting Irish roads from the AA. The AA road signs had shown distances in miles and quarters, halves and three-quarters, but Bord Fáilte decided that for mid-20th century travellers it would be sufficient to show distances to the nearest mile and, accordingly, the distance to be shown on the replacement signs would be rounded up or down to the nearest whole number.
One autumn evening about that time, I was making my way to Mullingar along a maze of unfamiliar back-roads when I came to a three-way junction. A signpost stood in a triangular patch of grass in the centre of the junction stripped of its direction signs and surrounded by a small group of council workers. I rolled down my window and asked the charge-hand which of the two roads leading away from the junction I should take for Mullingar. He indicated the road I wanted. I thanked him and asked him how far it was.
“Begob sir,” he replied, holding up the AA sign they had just removed, “You are righ’ owa luck. A minute ago ’twas five and a half miles”; and holding up the new Bord Fáilte sign, “Now ’tis six”.
- Yours, etc,