IRISH ROAD VEHICLES SINCE 1896 – A BIT OF HISTORY –

When mechanically propelled vehicles first appeared at the end of the 19th century, each vehicle had to have a crew of three, including one to walk in front with a red flag. The speed limit was then 4mph.

In 1896 The speed limit was raised to 14mph. Drivers were required to keep to the left when meeting oncoming traffic.

The first car in Ireland was the Serpollet Steam car, imported from France on 6th March 1896. The car was coke-fired with steel wheels and had a two-cylinder horizontal engine under the drivers seat

Around July 1903 it is estimated that there were less than fifty cars in the whole of Ireland. The first registrations numbers were allocated this year, the “I” standing for Ireland, prefixed each letter of the alphabet for each county/city in alphabetical order. It then switched around with I for Ireland being prefixed by the alphabet letters beginning again to take up the remaining counties. G, S and V were reserved until the 1980s. Q was never used. In later years the two letters were prefixed with a third letter – in alphabetical order per year ABI, BBI etc, and later still, the letters changed from prefix to follow the numbering. Eg BI 9999 and 1 BI .

January 1904 a driving licence was granted to any and every applicant without any form of testing, medical or practical.

From 1907 all vehicles were required to have lights County Councils were made Registration and Licensing Authorities, the vehicle registration fee was 20 shilling and the drivers licence fee was five shillings. The speed limit was raised to 20 mph.

In 1910 all related revenue was allocated exclusively for road improvements

In 1921 the tax was set at £1 a year per unit of horsepower. Tax discs were introduced as proof of payment.

The current system of registrations began in 1987.

MONAGHAN ARCHIVES – Licenses and Registrations

PREVIOUS REGISTRATION SYSTEM Monaghan 1903 – 1986

BI 1 to BI 9999 (Dec 1903 – Mar 1961). ABI 1 to ZBI 999 (Mar 1961 – Oct 1981).

1 BI to 6540 BI (Oct 1981 – Dec 1986).

The original Records of new registrations prior to 1933 are unavailable.

Records of the first registration of 1933 issued 2/1/1933 show BI 2061 issued to a John Barker (address not provided) which implies that just 2060 vehicles were registered in Monaghan between 1903 and 1932 – an average of just 69 per year in the 30 years prior.

The first driver license records recorded in ledgers in the custody of the motor tax office go back to August 9th 1923 recording “serial Numbers of license Cards issued to and returned by Council”

Driver license issue records begin on 4th July 1925. What is strange about these issues is that almost half were issued to addresses outside the county. (See separate reproduction from the ledger) The majority of these went to the surrounding counties of Armagh, Fermanagh, Tyrone and to Belfast addresses. Some went to England including one to an Edward Moore, 357 Dickinson Rd. Manchester on 22nd July 2025.

Driver licensing transferred out to a separate licensing body in 2013.

The first trade plate license 001 BI is recorded as issued to HS Given on 17/12/48

Co Monaghan vehicle registrations since before the 2nd world war up to 1982 – nearly 50 yrs. of REGISTRATION HISTORY.

 

YEAR Last Reg. No. of the Year No. Of Registrations % Change
1933 BI 2169 Estimated     102 N/A
1934 BI 2280 111 9%
1935 BI 2408 128 15%
1936 BI 2604 196 53%
1937 BI 2804 200 2%
1938 BI 2958 154 -23%
1939 BI 3092 134 -13%
1940 BI 3176 84 -37%
1941 BI 3220 44 -48%
1942 BI 3224 4 -91%
1943 BI 3233 9 125%
1944 BI 3243 10 11%
1945 BI 3282 39 290%
1946 BI 3415 133 241%
1947 BI 3758 343 158%
1948 BI 4336 578 69%
1949 BI 4785 449 -22%
1950 BI 5219 434 -3%
1951 BI 5596 377 -13%
1952 BI 5975 379 1%
1953 BI 6366 391 3%
1954 BI 6882 516 32%
1955 BI 7565 683 32%
1956 BI 7981 416 -39%
1957 N / A Estimated     302 -28%
1958 N / A         ”              343 14%
1959 N / A         ”              383 11%
1960 N / A         ”              524 37%
1961 ABI 479 2081 297%
1962 BBI 179 699 -66%
1963 BBI 891 711 2%
1964 CBI 695 803 13%
1965 DBI 517 821 2%
1966 EBI 294 776 -5%
1967 FBI 115 820 6%
1968 GBI 57 941 15%
1969 HBI 35 977 4%
1970 IBI 66 1030 5%
1971 IBI 929 933 -9%
1972 KBI 84 1153 24%
1973 LBI 748 1663 44%
1974 MBI 704 955 -43%
1975 NBI 762 1057 11%
1976 PBI 768 2004 90%
1977 SBI 573 1803 -10%
1978 UBI 716 2141 19%
1979 WBI 568 1850 -14%
1980 YBI 315 1745 -6%
1981 147 BI 1830 5%
1982 1536 BI 1388 -24%

The 4 vehicles issued in 1942 were as follows;

  1. Ford 8 – D Patton local Merchant
  2. Dodge – Ditto
  3. Ford 10 – Clones resident
  4. Austin 10 – Doctor Maguirre, Clones.

The 9 vehicles registered in 1943:

  1. Tractors (4 Fordsons, 1 Ferguson & 1 Dodge (1 Fordson to lough Egish Co-Op)
  2. Ford 8Doctor Carragher, Corduff.
  3. Ford 10Doctor Killen, Monaghan
  4. Ford 8Rev Dickson Newbliss

Of the 10 vehicles registered in 1944:

 8 were tractors and of the two cars 1 was registered to Dr Leonard, Emyvale & 2nd to A Dale Newbliss

The change the an additional letter on the BI registrations was made on the 1/4/1961 that car being a VW saloon in the name of Dr PJ Deery of Latlurcan Monaghan

The reversion back to BI with the numerals preceding the lettering this time occurred on 20/10/1981 this described simply as a Ford sold in the name of M Hughes Dawson Street.

We have however been presented with details of the first 64 issues in the attachment “First registrations Monaghan”