IN THE SUMMER of 1990, on the day of our school Sports Day, my father Pat — motoring correspondent with the Sunday Independent — collected me in a Mazda MX-5. It was one of the first in Ireland. I had never seen anything like it. Low, sleek, roof down, completely unlike anything else in the car park. I understood immediately why it existed.

I have never owned a convertible. But I have driven dozens of them since, and something happens when you do that is difficult to explain to someone who hasn’t. You become suddenly, almost uncomfortably aware of the road, the speed, the smell of the air, the hedgerows coming at you.

It is more visceral than driving a normal car. More present. The world feels immediate in a way it doesn’t through glass and steel. But of course we live in Ireland, so people look at you because you have ‘Notions’. 

Everyone should experience that at least once. The problem is that experiencing it and owning one are entirely different things. And Ireland is full of people who confused the two. And I tip my hat to them.

The numbers tell the story

In 2025, 125 new convertibles were registered in Ireland. That is roughly one every three days. A niche purchase, certainly, convertibles accounted for just 0.1% of the new car market, ranking tenth out of all body types. But here is what is striking: that figure has barely moved in a decade.

In........

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