1925

Drunk motorists

The English House of Lords has agreed an amendment in the Criminal Justice Act providing that a conviction for drunkenness when in charge of a motor vehicle shall automatically carry with it a twelve months’ licence disqualification.

While we do not suggest that the Dáil should blindly follow the lead of the English Parliament, where legislation affecting the public interest is concerned, we think the line of this matter might be followed with advantage in Ireland.

The drunk motorist is a potential murderer and too much tolerance has been extended to him in the past. The increasing use of the motor car has produced a type of driver who is a danger to himself and to every other person who uses the high way.

The reckless disregard of the ordinary rules of the road on the part of a large number of drivers is bad enough in all conscience, but when the drunk motorist is permitted to “step on the gas”, the thoroughfare becomes a veritable death-trap. We think the district justices have been too lenient in the past with the speeder fiend and the drunk motorist.

1950

McKenna’s power

St. Joan of Arc roused and marshalled the sluggish spirit of a demoralised France and led it in a glorious crusade which culminated in sweeping the last vestige of British power and influence from her country’s soil.

And we could not help feeling as we came away from Taibhdhearc na Gaillimhe, after Ian Priestly-Mitchell’s production of the Irish version of Shaw’s “St. Joan” on Wednesday night, that we, too, had seen a woman who had “rud éigin a baint léithi” which could enable her to spearhead another glorious campaign which would bring final victory to our Irish language and culture.

Siobhán McKenna has won international fame as ana actress and has put her message across to millions through the medium of the language of the stranger, but her greatest triumph and her most inspiring message appears to have been reserved for her own kith and kin, to be delivered through the medium of her own language, from the stage of the humble, struggling little theatre where her dramatic career began.

Pictured: BIG DECISIONS John O’Leary from Pearse Avenue, Mervue, studies a Santa Claus book on display at a toy counter in December 1963.