Three times recently I have tried to hire a car from Knock airport in the west of Ireland. Each time I have had the same experience. A few days ago I tried again – I went online and picked the car, a small runabout. Smashing – cheap deal for a week. I put in my age – 79 – and suddenly the car vanished. “The car you are looking at is no longer available,” the screen said. The ageist fairy had waved its magic wand and de-materialised €25,000 worth of Korean engineering.
So I tried again and this time lied about my age, saying I was 60. No worries, straight to payment – how many cars did I want? (I am still getting emails from the company asking me to finalise the deal.)
Now the last time I mentioned this on my website, the very nice man who chairs the association of car rental organisations in Ireland wrote a very nice letter explaining that I was mistaken, that ageism does not exist in Ireland and that there are more cars than I can shake a walking stick at, falling from car hire trees just waiting for me to pick them up. Well, my wife tried and failed in spring last year, and I’ve just tried and failed again – I can only conclude that this is discrimination by reason of age.
This year I have driven from North Yorkshire to Cleggan, Connemara, twice in a Kia electric car, and driven from North Yorkshire to the south of France in a 2008 Beetle convertible. I have been driving since my late teens, and have a clean licence, good health (as in no medication) and am still working as a writer.
So let’s get this right – if WB Yeats went online and tried to rent a car to get him from Knock to meet Maud Gonne under Benbulbin for a bit of rumpy pumpy, he would have to go whistle Dixie because Ireland is no country for old men – or women by the sound of it.
Mike Harding
Settle, North Yorkshire
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