Me Driving Test
I have embarked on the quixotic quest of securing an Irish driving license. Every year we’ve visited I have gotten a rental car (you'd call it carhire here). As long as the price remains somewhat reasonable, it would remain my preferred method of getting around - insurance is covered, you don't have to worry about mechanical breakdowns, buying tires, getting oil changes, etc., etc. I've been able to get a longtime lease these last few years that works, with my 28-day rentals costing €600 last year and €750 this year. Keep in mind that last year I spoke with people from the States who were paying $1,000 to $2,000 per week (conversion - currently it costs about $1.12 to buy one Euro). Still, in our five month visits I spend over $4,000. Thanks be to God for those part-time seasonal jobs at Sandridge GC and the IRSC Math Lab... Were the carhire rates to rise too much higher, it would become prohibitively expensive and unsustainable for me to continue with this choice of transportation - I would need to buy a car. I'm fairly confident that I could get a serviceable used car for something between €5,000 and €7,000. Fair enough, but a problem arises with trying to insure a car here with an American license. Just about impossible.
Hence the quest.
Unfortunately, the US is one of the few countries whose driving licenses do not enjoy reciprocity here. I don’t know why. People from most other countries could just swap their license for an Irish license. So... I've had to start from the beginning - taking "The Theory Test" (our written test) as the first step. The Irish Theory test has 850 possible questions from which 40 are randomly selected for the test - a minimum of 35 correct answers are required to pass. 850! Now, some are questions any experienced driver could intuit - a picture is presented and you're to choose the correct action. But many. Many, many, many - are things you'd never know offhand. What's the minimum safe tread on a tire - 1.6 mm; how many penalty points for drinkdriving - over this limit, under that; up to what passenger age is the driver responsible for ensuring the passenger wear a seatbelt - 16; what's the maximum speed intown, on a local road, a national road, a motorway - 50kph, 80kmh, 100kmh, 120kmh - and when you're towing a trailer? 80kmh. And on and on. Luckily, Niamh (pronounced neeve), the daughter of our good friends and former landlords – Darren Madden and Maria Ruddy – gave me her copy of the DVD study guide. And study I did. Passed the test with flying colors.
I have a fair number of bad habits to break – need to keep both hands on the wheel at all times, need to always have the clutch engaged and not “coast” around corners and to stop signs with the clutch depressed, need to come to full stops at stop signs, need to work through gears more quickly, etc. I also have to incorporate a number of new behaviors (specific to Ireland) – when to signal, when to check mirrors, when to look over my shoulder for clearance, proper (and somewhat complex) use of roundabouts, proper spacing between cars when stopped, engage handbrake when I'm the lead car stopped at a red light, etc. etc.
My instructor was strict, and appropriately called attention to my mistakes and oversights. Boy, it seemed to be quite frequent. However, at the end of the session today he said that I was clearly an experienced driver and that it would be immediately discerned by the examiner. He said he has a sense of these things and “was confident that I’d have no problem passing.” The average pass rate is alarmingly low - somewhere close to 50%. Yikes! His students have a 94% pass rate. I told him I would try to not ruin his record…
Oh. I’ve made it sound too simple. I also needed to have “permission to remain” – legal residency in Ireland (obtained last year – a separate but simpler story) and bring with me my medical records and a letter from my regular physician – thanks Sam Watkins – which would need to be reviewed and signed off on by an Irish physician (try getting a medical appointment for such) – thanks Dr. Eileen O’Connor of the Louisburgh Medical Practice.
Here's hoping. You’ll be the first to know…only if I pass, of course.. 
Update:
Well, I just went ahead and passed the darn thing! On 17 October, just two weeks before we were scheduled to return to the States. I had resigned myself to waiting to test until we were back in May 2024. The backlog on tests just seemed to be further extending out each time I checked. Depending where you were, and the demand in your local testing center, waiting times to be "invited to book a test" can extend out to almost a full year. Major metropolitan areas such as Dublin, Cork City, and Limerick were among those with that extended horizon. I booked as soon as I passed the theory test in early June. At that time, it projected an invite to book (when you go online you're given a window of between 3 to 5 weeks within which to actually schedule a test) toward the end of September. Close, but it would work. By the time I completed my lessons, the time horizon for the Castlebar testing center had stretched out to the end of December. Not good.
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| Proof positive |