History of Roads in Ireland - 20th Century Onwards

20th Century Onwards

Railways became the dominant form of land transport from the mid-19th century. This situation persisted until the first half of the 20th century when motorised road transport (cars, buses and trucks) gradually began to take over from railways as the most important form of land transport.

The 20th century saw a renewed emphasis on roads as the primary method of facilitating land transport. The increase in motor vehicle traffic on roads meant that urgent improvements were required to make roads suitable for all vehicles in the automobile age.

In 1909, a Road Board was set up to improve roads. It was initially funded by a tax on motor fuel and a later a licence duty on cars, the Road Fund. Road surfaces were improved and roads were widened and straightened using money raised by the Road Fund. The Road Board was abolished in 1919 when its functions were transferred to the newly established Ministry of Transport. In 1922, after the foundation of the Irish Free State, the Minister for Local Government took over the functions of the Ministry of Transport. In 2002, the newly renamed Department of Transport took over responsibility for national roads. From 1921-1922 onwards, the partition of Ireland has led to different paths in the evolution of public road networks in Northern Ireland and the rest of Ireland. Responsibility for roads in Northern Ireland fell on the Stormont administration from 1921 to 1972. In 1996, the Northern Ireland Roads Service was set up; it became an agency of the Northern Ireland Department for Regional Development when devolved government was restored in 1999.

Several other differences, including in road classification and route-numbering, speed-limits, directional sign-posting and warning and regulatory signposting have developed since the 1920s. Signs in Northern Ireland denote distances in miles, while all directional signs placed in the Republic since the 1970s use kilometres. Currently speed limits in miles per hour (mph) are used north of the border; those in the Republic are in kilometres per hour (km/h). Metric speed limits were introduced on 20 January 2005, this involved the provision of 58,000 new metric speed limit signs, replacing 35,000 imperial signs. The Republic's road signs are bilingual, using both of the state's official languages, Irish and English while those in Northern Ireland are in English only. Northern Ireland uses directional, regulatory and warning signage which is almost identical to that used in Great Britain. Warning signs have black symbols on a white background with a red border, enclosed in a triangle-shaped sign. However, from 1956, the Republic of Ireland has used diamond-shaped warning signs, with black symbols or writing on a yellow (reddish-orange for temporary signs) background, similar to the signs used in the US and Australia.

Roads in the Republic are signed with M (for motorways), N (for national roads), R (for regional roads) and L (for Local roads). The appearance of L road-numbers on signposts only began in 2006, along with European route numbers on some major roads. Roads in Northern Ireland are signed with M (for motorways), A (for A-class roads) and B (for B-class roads). There are also C-class roads in Northern Ireland but these road-numbers are not currently shown on signposts.

The introduction of metric speed limits has led to the erection of signs warning motorists of the change to either the metric or imperial systems at the border. Differing road-numbering systems also mean that some signs in Northern Ireland display route-numbers used in the Republic and vice versa.