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Got something to say?  You can contact me at: editor@oldireland.ie.


Text only in the first instance please. There is enough phishing and other rubbish in the world already!!
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A Dirty Little Secret?

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This thought ties back in part to an article I wrote earlier:https://oldandireland.blogspot.com/2018/11/a-pessimistic-speculation-on-future.html



At present, we are being sold the myth that if we all swap to some sort of electric car, then personal transportation will continue into the future, just in a quieter and less polluting form.Don’t believe this!Cars have at least one dirty little secret that the environmentalists have not yet talked about, and it alone may signal the end of mass car ownership.
There are currently 38.7 million cars in the UK and 2.68 million in the Republic of Ireland.According to google, UK motorists cover an average 7900 miles annually while their Irish counterparts drive further with a 10,500 mile annual average.Now consider the tyres on all of these vehicles.If tyres are replaced at around the 30, 000 mile mark my quick calculation estimates that we are using about 11.1 million car tyres in the UK and Ireland every year.OK, these old tyres are recycled, but w…
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You are a hard bunch to please.

The post on here with the largest number of hits is the Irish jokes one, and all I did for it was trawl a few jokes sites.  It was posted ages ago, but still gets quite a few hits.



Other stories on here like the links to our history (WW1, Civil War, love and emigration) of the old Rolex that my Mum was given as a teenager (https://oldandireland.blogspot.com/2018/11/social-history-part-2-rolex-with-story.html) barely got a hit at all, neither did my comments on what I know about Belfast's most famous bar (The Crown:  https://oldandireland.blogspot.com/2018/11/the-jewel-that-is-crown.html).  No comments, no feedback; nothing.  It is difficult to know what to write, but then again, perhaps I should take this as a judgement and just shut up?



Any thoughts?
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Irish Jokes - Now these are old!!

Below are as many Irish jokes as I could rustle up.  Feel free to add more in the comments to this.  Enjoy.

My mate Paddy just told me that he robbed a shop last night.

"What did you get?" I asked.

"26 pictures," he smiled, showing me. "The cheapest one is worth over £180,000."

I said, "Paddy, these are from an estate agents."
A spokesman at Ringsend sewage plant in Ireland has announced plans to extend its capacity. "By how much?”, asked the reporter. He replied, "Two turds."
Paddy texts his wife...

“Mary, I’m just having one more pint with the lads.

If I’m not back in 20 minutes, read this message again.” One afternoon Paddy and Mick were having a pint at a pub across from a brothel. For the craic, they sat in the front so they could watch the comings and goings across the street. The two lads were shocked when a Presbyterian minister walked into the brothel.

"Begod," says Paddy, "that's a shame to see a man of th…
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Local History of the worst possible kind! The story of Carnage Hill.

This post is shamelessly copied from a local history book, now out of print, that is also available in pdf format on line: http://www.bayburn.com/29128%20Helen's%20Bay%20&%20Crawfordsburn%20History.pdf. It is one section only of a much larger and more broadly based book.  All credit is then due to the book's author, and to the team at bayburn.com.

Those who have travelled the main road between Bangor and Belfast will know the corner known as ‘the Devil’s Elbow’, which is located just before the junction leading to Seahill/ Rockport.On the left side of the road when travelling from Bangor there is a small road leading up into the Holywood hills.It is now called Carney Hill, but according to this article that name derives from Carnage Hill.To see where it got this name read on.

Many thanks are due to Sam, my friend and avid local history buff.It was he who originally showed me a paper copy of this book.Unfortunately it is not a proud episode in our history.





The Ballydavey Massa…
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I bought a vampire motorcycle!

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Those of you with long memories may remember the movie, where a possessed Norton Commando periodically struck down anyone within range.The BMW Funduro mentioned in the last Motorcycle story here developed similar tendencies.I extolled its virtues as bike with decent power and good handling all for the price of a BSA Bantam.But while I was using the bike, a number of design flaws haunted my daily commute, but the last one beat them all.


For those who don’t know, the Funduro was a BMW designed (and branded) motorcycle, built in Italy by Aprilia, using an Austrian Rotax engine.They were made from 1994 to 2000, with a revision in 1996 that addressed the major fault discussed in this story.

The BMW Funduro, as bought
The previous owner of my 1994 Funduro had left it unused under a cover in his garden for a couple of years, so I always knew that it needed work to make it roadworthy.As usual, I completely underestimated what would be involved in fixing a 20 odd year old bike with 30,000 miles …
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The next time you have to buy Magenta toner/ ink for your printer, think of this.....

The Battle of Magenta took place near the town of Magenta in the Kingdom of Lombardy–Venetia, a crown land of the Austrian Empire on 4 June 1859.The dye was discovered in 1859 and named in honour of the event. 
Now here is the Irish bit; the leader of French forces was of Irish descent.  According to Wikipedia, his family his family originally had land in Munster, lost it because of Cromwell, and then eventually emigrated to France after 1690. Patrice de MacMahon (Paddy to his mates) joined the French army in 1820 and distinguished himself fighting for Napoleon.After winning the Battle of Magenta, he was made Duke of Magenta, before eventually becoming President of France!
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Welcome

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Welcome to Old Ireland.
My initial idea for this site was to cover only classic vehicles, but since classicireland.ie was already taken and the best alternative I could find was this one, my thoughts for the site began to broaden.A lot of the inspiration for this comes from the few magazines for which I have written articles.Let’s get these mentioned early, because you should not be surprised to see a little of their influence here.Real Classic is subscription only in print, but also has an excellent site at https://www.real-classic.co.uk/, where Frank, Rowena and a host of writers entertain and inspire.Then there is Minnesota Motorcycle Monthly, formerly in print monthly, but now only on line at http://mnmotorcycle.com/.MMM’s archives could keep you reading happily for months, and the like it or not truths told by Thomas Day (Geezer with a grudge: see his own site at http://geezerwithagrudge.blogspot.com/), should make everyone on two wheels pause for thought.If you have time on the …
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Buyer Beware!

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Let’s face it, when you are buying second hand it pays to be cautious and to look for faults that the buyer may not have declared.I have no problem with this, although I do try to be as honest as I can when selling anything.What I do have a problem with are undisclosed problems that would be dangerous, but which would be impossible to find on any inspection without both prior knowledge of what to look for, and disassembly of the item being bought. Old and new sprockets from the Funduro.  The gearbox output shaft should be a good fit in the splines shown on the new sprocket on the right.  Instead its splines wore quickly to almost non existence.

If you have read my last two motorcycle related posts here, you will have followed the tale of me buying and fixing up an old 1994 BMW F650 Funduro for winter transport.You will also have read of the numerous faults that these bikes are afflicted with and the ones that I suffered.I have no doubt that if BMW had produced a car that had the number …
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