Ireland /Eire

• 'Ireland / Eire 1997' by Adrian Burkert & Benno Leideman

The bigger roads are of good quality, there are some km of highways around the bigger cities, then there are good two to four lane roads between the bigger cities and normal main roads between the small cities.

But these are all not to interesting for ATiCs - the good thing are the tousands of small narrow country roads with small stone walls on both sides, potholes, asphalt or gravel - just great ! There are may possibilities to drive offroad as well (for exemple inch beach) but take care of the nice Landscape and the animals and people living there !

Drive on the left side of the road ! (absolutely no problem to get used to !!!). Most of the cars use high beam all the time at night, when there is a two lane road (one in each direction) there might be a stopping/safety lane on the side which lorry drivers use if you are overtaking them.
Same as in your country ? Well in Ireland the drivers in both directions use the safety lane when a car is passing in one or the other direction !!! Not a problem ? Well dont forget to get off the normal lane if a car is passing in the opposite direction ...

There are speed limits (I think around 90 outside villages) but the smaller the road is the less people follow it - but remember just drive as fast as you feel save (saw once a speed check) !

On the countryside drivers use to greet each other and let the other pass or cross as easy as possible.
I put Metzeler Enduro 3 for Ireland (good on roads, good on gravel, good on sand, ok offroads)
Weather
Irelands weather is influenced all year by the gulf stream, which means that there is not much snow in wintertime (high temperatures compared to geographical position) and has spots with almost sub tropical climate (palm trees, yucca, rhododendron, azalea grow in the south !!!)

The best time of the year to visit Ireland is June/Juli when it is mostly sunny in many parts of the country.
I was in Ireland three times in spring (from February to March) and it was great Irish weather most of the time, which means that at temperatures around 18/8/5° celsius (day high/day low/night) the weather changes about three times a day from blue sky to rain or just clouded/fog and back to blue sky. I heard that autumn in Ireland is quite nice as well but the later it is the more fog you can get.