Ireland
The official state car in Ireland is a 1947 Rolls-Royce Silver Wraith. Douglas Hyde, the first president of Ireland was provided with a state car, but his severe stroke early into his term of office meant that he rarely travelled in public. When he retired in 1945 the Irish state decided that his successor needed a state vehicle for formal occasions.
The daily transport of the president of Ireland and the Taoiseach (prime minister) are Mercedes Benz S-Class. The vehicles are driven by armed Gardaí (special branch police force). The Taoiseach and his Government Ministers usually sit in the passenger seat of their official cars. The presidential motorcade is led by a Garda patrol car, then the presidential limo with Irish flag and State Harp flag followed by one or two unmarked Garda cars usually BMW 5 Series. The presidential fleet also includes an Audi A6 and a Volvo S80. The Garda Traffic Corps also provide motorcycle escort around the motorcade. When the President or Taoiseach visit Northern Ireland they are driven in bulletproof SUVs.
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Famous quotes containing the word ireland:
“Life springs from death and from the graves of patriot men and women spring living nations.... They think that they have pacified Ireland. They think that they have purchased half of us and intimidated the other half. They think that they have foreseen everything, think they have provided against everything; but the fools, the fools, the fools, they have left us our Fenian dead, and while Ireland holds these graves Ireland unfree shall never be at peace.”
—Patrick Henry Pearse (1879–1916)
“In Ireland they try to make a cat cleanly by rubbing its nose in its own filth. Mr. Joyce has tried the same treatment on the human subject. I hope it may prove successful.”
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)
“They call them the haunted shores, these stretches of Devonshire and Cornwall and Ireland which rear up against the westward ocean. Mists gather here, and sea fog, and eerie stories. That’s not because there are more ghosts here than in other places, mind you. It’s just that people who live hereabouts are strangely aware of them.”
—Dodie Smith, and Lewis Allen. Roderick Fitzgerald (Ray Milland)