#MyTopThree: Countries. 1. IRELAND

So if you have thought about what #MyTopThree Countries much I dare say you’ll find number one inevitable. So yes, Ireland!

I feel I should remind you this is a top 3 based on overall experience, not just driving. Though it has a terrible reputation for bad roads the road network is unrecognisable compared to just 20/25 years ago and bad roads are becoming ever fewer and further between. My first taste of Ireland was when Dad started working for Nolans in the late 90’s who were at the time one of ‘South Wales’ biggest employers of drivers. Back then the roads were horrendous and you had to make sure everything was strapped down, in the cab as well as the trailer!

Nolan’s gets a lot of bad said about it but like most things a lot is not really true. Yes they were plain speakers, yes you ran day and night but no one ever went there for an easy time. Fact is they were/are well run and like most of Ireland’s transport sector a family firm where you’re more like to see the boss in overalls than a shirt. 

Fast forward to 2007 and Virginia. At HSF I was doing Ireland, Belgium and Holland but I of course wanted more. My dream job wasn’t puddle jumping (which sounds a put down but it really isn’t!). So in Nijmegen one night someone said Virginia were looking for drivers and gave me their number. I rang, they didn’t sound all that interested in me. Then a while later Sean Cole rang me up and said do you want a job, which basically turned out to be the best phone call I ever had.

I left my HSF truck in the yard in Coventry on a Friday, packed my car up and got the ferry to start at Virginia on the Saturday*. One of things I like most about Irish companies, was same at Nolan’s, is that there’s no long service hierarchy when allocating trucks. It’s all about attitude, how well you do the work. So I started at Virginia with a year old R500 Topline (I had two, 06CN831 this one) and sent out with a new fridge and a bundle of CMRs. Just ‘local’ to allow them to get the measure of me. But this local meant U.K. I got my first European trip the week after, Portugal.

Another thing I like about the Irish transport scene is the trucks they buy. For instance in the example above I get given a year old V8 with a fitted fridge freezer and an air con pod, quite apart from it being a well speced trucks in other areas. In U.K. (or Holland at HSF) the basis for most fleets is ‘poverty spec’  (sounds like a put down and in this case I really mean it) trucks where companies don’t really give a shit about the driver in their quest to screw every last penny from you! It still absolutely baffles me how in 2021 even a fitted fridge is seen as some sort of luxurious extravagance in most UK companies, to likes of Virginia the fridge is a basic. They bought some ex UK Scanias once and it was like getting out of a 5 Star hotel and into a pay by the hour motel. If anyone remembers HSF had some 4 Series Topline Scanias and they were 380’s! Which is bonkers even then!

Elsewhere the attitude in Ireland is also just better. Friendly and helpful. Far far less likely to get to a warehouse where they punish you for being half an hour late by ignoring you for hours. I actually feel a new blog post coming on about the way we are treated in different countries, the U.K. is one of the worst. From what I can see and from what I hear Ireland is very similar to how the U.K. used to be, before all the big network/solutions/logistics companies rolled up and took all the good things away from the industry and replaced with shit. Ireland is heading that way a little from what I hear and that would be very sad.

Ireland isn’t anti truck in a way we are here. Transport is much more ingrained in the attitude of most Irish people, it’s a very family driven industry. The fact that in most cases you’re more likely to see the boss down in a pit fixing the lorry as in a boardroom. At HSF it was owned by a family (recently taken over by DFDS) but the closest you ever got to them was Simon Fredeiks driving his expensive car around in shirts that probably cost as much as a weeks wages! Sean Cole the oldest of the Virginia brothers is basically a yard man, in yard keeping an eye on things and moving stuff about. Seamus Nolan was always in overalls as he was in charge of the workshop as well as employing drivers, basically he was the overall boss I think, so he was always in there fixing something. It’s a lot easier to respect your boss when he works harder than you do. Again much like it used to be with us.

Ireland is very varied with scenery. Out west is my favourite. I used to love heading down there to get fish from Killarney area, or Coca Cola ingredients from further up in Ballina, that ship from there across Europe, you’ll remember my Budapest Video. That was one of my favourite runs.

Even has a Wikipedia entry!

And finally food! Just the usual chippers*** and what not but the fact you can get a breakfast baguette in most petrol stations is perfect (I’m now desperately craving one!). They normally have fairly decent grocery shops and something they call a deli and I call a takeaway. They seem to have perfected the art of fillings which is very important for the food obsessed bobbins like myself . They also have burger chain Supermacs that McDonalds took to court over their name and Supermacs won which was a refreshing outcome. 

Like McDonalds, but better

So yeah, Ireland. The single country thats pretty much given me the most in terms of career. I love it like home (Wales not U.K.**) and getting off the ferry always feels like a homecoming. If it wasn’t for my family I’d have upped sticks and moved there by now in this post Brexit shitstorm we are living through but after everything that’s happened my mother deserves me doing what she’s always wanted, for me to live in a house nearby.

So interested in others, what’s your favourite 3 countries?

*By weird coincidence I started Virginia 14 years ago yesterday

**Jokes. Maybe.

***An Irishism. Others are ‘yoke’ to describe anything from a pebble to a supertanker and ‘well ware’ when wishing someone luck with a new vehicle and many many others that I can’t think of.

SORRY FOR VIDEO DELAY, TOMORROW I PROMISE. 

Edit to add something is in the pipeline shortly re Ireland. Watch this space, lots of content on the way. (No not got licence back yet)

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And well it wouldn’t be about Ireland without mention of this…..

The roads can bite you. Hard.