DOWN THE YEARS

Memories from days gone by

Sports car plant to open in Castlebridge July 1983

Eight jobs are to be created in Castlebridge as a new Irish-designed sports car goes into production in a 4,000 sq.ft. factory there next week.

The TMC Costin – a two-seater car which will be sold in kit form for as little as £2,500 – is the brainchild of three local brothers, Peter, Val and Sean Thompson, who hope to sell the product on the home and export markets.

Designed by internationally known motor designer, Francis Costin, at his Cork research centre, the car will be based on a tubular frame with a fibreglass body and will be capable of taking a variety of engines, including the Kadett 1.3L and the Chevette one litre.

TMC will market complete cars or simply body and chassis in several variations. They hope to produce up to 250 units per year.

The project is backed by the Industrial Development Authority under the Small Industries Scheme and the official launching of the new car will take place at Mondello Park, Co. Kildare, on August 25th.

TMC (Thomson Manufacturing Company) came into existence earlier this year and is comprised of the three Thomson brothers, who worked up to recently with well-known designer, Professor Seamus Timoney, at his research centre in Navan.

Mr Val Thompson was Financial Controller of Timoney Research Ltd., while draughtsman Peter was in charge of several design projects there, including that of armoured personnel carriers for the Irish Army. The other Thompson brother, Sean, was a design technician with the firm.

The Castlebridge-built car will race on Irish tracks during the current season and should markets prove successful, the brothers hope to increase initial employment targets.

‘Flashy’ new signs don’t lead to fines July 1991

Drivers hurtling along the Ring Road at Ferrycarrig have been taken aback by the appearance of a pair of road signs clever enough to work out when a car is coming and how fast it is travelling.

The signs display the driver’s speed and also give a ‘Slow Down’ warning if that speed is above the limit of 40 mph.

But just how clever are those signs? Some drivers have taken to covering that section of road at snail’s pace because they are afraid that if they are going too fast, the signs will photograph their cars and land them in court on a speeding summons.

But County Council engineer Noel Casey laughed when ‘Wexford Diary’ put this to him.

‘There’s no fear of that. They’re not nearly so sophisticated as that. That sort of thing would be far off into the future still,’ he said.

True, there is a camera fitted to the top of the sign, he explained, but it is simply a radar camera which picks up a car as it approaches and activates the flashing lights on the sign once the car passes a certain speed – 40 mph.

The signs have had to be adjusted twice since they were installed, in order to focus the camera – not in order to take clearer photographs, but to fix how far back the camera will pick up a speeding car and set the lights flashing.

Gardaí see red over Wexford tax discs July 2000

Gardaí in Dublin and other parts of the country are seeing red over car tax discs issued in Co. Wexford because no-one told them they are now a different colour to those issued everywhere else in Ireland.

County Wexford motorists have discovered their red tax discs for 2001 have attracted some unwanted attention from the boys in blue at road checks set up to catch drivers with out of date documents.

The county is taking part in a pilot scheme which means the colour of the tax discs remaining unchanged for two years. The only problem is that Gardaí in other places are unaware of this and are demanding to see blue discs on Wexford windscreens, not red ones.

Insurance broker Edmond Walsh, from Barntown, said he was stopped last week and spent several minutes explaining to a very suspicious guard that the red disc was indeed valid, and had been issued by Wexford County Council.

Another motorist tells of her car being ‘surrounded’ by three guards in Dublin, who virtually accused her of driving a car with a forged tax disc.

A spokesperson at the Garda National Press Office was unware of the problem until contacted by this newspaper.

After investigating, she said it appeared the Department of the Environment had not informed Gardaí nationally about the pilot scheme.

‘Gardaí in Wexford were aware of it, but those outside the county weren’t aware of these red discs,’ she said.

The Superintendent’s Office in Wexford is now taking steps to inform members of the Gardaí nationally that the red discs are legal.

The Department insisted that local authorities and the Gardaí were all informed of the pilot scheme at the beginning of the year, but there appeared to have been a breakdown in communications.

If the scheme is a success, it will be repeated throughout Ireland from 2002.

County Council officials said they had received reports of cars with Wexford tax discs being stopped, but had no other details.

Publican who never pulled a pint retires July 1995

Seventy years behind the bar of a pub, but he never pulled a pint...that’s Mike Meyler of Tacumshane, who at 86 years young, is bowing out after a lifetime in the business.

‘The only draught I have here is the one behind the counter in the winter time,’ said Mike, who never took a drink himself despite serving up bottled beers and half ones since he was 15 years old.

‘I wouldn’t let it into the place. I’ll tell you the reason – you’d get three people in here asking for a pint. You’d give the three of them three pints out of the same barrel and they’d all have different opinions on whether it was a good pint or a bad pint.’

Mike formally handed over the old-style pub and shop to his son Gerry at a party on the premises on Sunday night, which was marked by ‘plenty of noise’ until the early hours of the morning.

It is a legacy that the retiring owner is proud to pass on. ‘It’s one of the finest pubs in the county,’ he said. It was formerly owned by his uncle-in-law Garry Murphy, who left it to him on his death in 1957.

‘He left me the whole place,’ said Mike, who started working there as a teenager on July 9, 1929. ‘I didn’t have one father. I had two. Garry was a thorough gentleman.’

As a young man of 15, Mike proved his enthusiasm for the job when he sold a record number of drinks at the Killinick Harriers Point-to-Point in Knockhowlin.

He served six cases of baby Powers (128 in each case) and 350 dozen bottles of stout in three and a half hours.

Despite being surrounded by alcohol, he was never tempted to take a drop himself. ‘I was reared in a family that didn’t drink,’ he said. He used to smoke cigarettes but went into town one day fourteen years ago and instead of buying cigarettes, bought ‘£100 worth of WP (willpower)’.

He was 86 last December but hasn’t got an ache or a pain. ‘I don’t know what pain is. I’m telling the boys here I’m going to Australia to play three games of rugby with the Wallabies,’ he joked.

He doesn’t intend to retire completely to the back room, but will be in and out of the shop and pub, helping Gerry and his wife Teresa, who recently painted the premises in traditional shades of red and green.

But you’ll never see him pulling a pint!

From the adverts: free smelly stuff! July 1980

Fehily’s Chemists at 28 South Main Street in Wexford were running an interesting promotion during July 1980.

Women could get a free bottle of Tramp perfume with every pair of Scholl sandals purchased. Men could get a free bottle of Old Spice after shave with every pair of Polaroid sunglasses.

There’s a couple of brands that were all the rage at the time but which you’d go a long way to find somebody using now...