LAST UPDATE | 18 hrs ago

WHENEVER I OPEN the blinds in the mornings and see rain, my heart sinks. Rain means that the commute is going to take eight times as long, and if you have to pass a school on your way? God help you.

There isn’t an ounce of sense to be found in this country when it’s raining. It’s as if people think that all driving regulations are suspended for the duration of the shower. Cars screech to a halt outside the schools, without any regard for the people around them, before hitting a sharp U-turn (often without any indicators) and then speeding off in the opposite direction. It is chaos out there. Wet, dark and impatient chaos.

As a parent of two secondary school children, I feel the school’s frustration as they send out yet another reminder email to parents asking them to please not drive their children to school. To please, instead, encourage them to be the first child in Ireland to ever use an umbrella. I understand why schools send these emails — the congestion is real, the safety concerns are real — but understanding the problem doesn’t magically create an alternative. And I have to admit, just like all the other parents, I ignore the emails and continue on my merry way because there is just no other way for us to get the kids there and back.

Our school is a ten-minute drive, or a 50-minute walk (for an adult, my younger daughter would take around three days door-to-door). So, on dry mornings, I drive them halfway, pull in at a petrol station, and they walk the rest.

We do this for several reasons. Firstly, my younger daughter has inevitably forgotten something that needs to be replaced in the shop. Secondly, the fresh air and (occasional) sunlight work wonders to wake them up. Thirdly, and most importantly, it is because their school, like every other school in Ireland, was clearly built at the same time as the pyramids, long before any human had ever even conceptualised a car. Or their need for one in modern society.

And you have to admire the sheer determination of those who planned and developed every school in Ireland to refuse to acknowledge the existence of cars, or the fact that parents might need to use them on occasion. Our school was built on the assumption that everyone who would ever attend would live no more than........

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