Traffic lights

It had been once upon a time, a day in April. Admittedly the news  sounded strange. But thinking so, it had been also clear that Ireland, the small resisting Republic, apparently did have some magic drink, that made it to the model student of Europe – something one could not imagine when the country joined, being ill-reputed as part of the EUropean poor house. So, there had been good reasons to think “Europe is good for us”, and then subsequently good reasons to think about “more Europe must even better for us”. So, the April news:

Ireland will join the European project even more and change the traffic rules fundamentally, introducing the right-hand traffic.

Wow, seems to be impossible … ; but they did it in the nordic countries (Sunday Sonntag, 3rd of September 1967, 5 o’clock in Sweden). The new announcement continued:

From next week, the trucks will begin, using the right side of the road – the experiment will last for month, and if it works out the next month will add to busses driving on the right side. As we expect that things will work out, after another month all other vehicle will follow.

— Amaying, isn’t it?

A BBC-comment on the occasion of the announcement of the new German government reminded me of this story, though we are now facing a kind of reversed version: looking at the “real” traffic light, we see typically one light at a time. The political traffic light will see red, yellow and green at exactly the same time. 

Yes, the first of April is also in Ireland April-fools day …