Watch yer back. By order

Posted on February 13, 2007
Filed Under Outside Dublin, Advertising, Dungarvan, Politics, Rant, bureaucracy, holiday, la-la-land, stupidity, transport, travel | Leave a Comment

Years ago, when the carnage on our roads was really, really bad as opposed to the just really bad situation we have now, everybody felt something had to be done. County Louth, I think, had the worst statistics, partly because (a) the locals were really bad drivers and (b) our Northern cousins drove like demons once they left their own jurisdiction.

The Gardai in Co Louth tried putting wrecked vehicles on the side of the road to reinforce the message that ‘it could be you‘ if you didn’t drive carefully. Later, the Irish Lotto used the same slogan (it could be you) in their advertising but in an entirely different context.

I took the photo below in the Mahon Falls near Dungarvan, Co Waterford. I was surprised to see the abandoned car but it was a good photo opportunity with the sign in the background. Now, don’t get me wrong, the area does have a problem with car crime during the summer when the hire cars of American visitors are broken into but during the winter…??

You won’t be able to read the sign in the photo at that size (try here) but it says (sic):

Visitors to the Mahon Falls Are Advised NOT to Leave Valuables Or Personal Belongings In Unattended Vehicles

I was puzzled by the punctuation (lots of capital letters) but I also wondered if it was some sort of marketing trick by the local council. Did the sign fail to combat the crime in the area? Did they toy with the idea of placing a few multi-lingual signs? Or maybe a really big sign? Or did they get a grant from central government and just say, ‘feck it lads, lets put a burned out car up there. That’ll really get the point home‘.

Lots of ‘official’ signs in Ireland have the legend ‘by order of [local council]‘ on them. This one doesn’t and maybe that’s the problem?

The mind boggles.