1953 – South Tipperary Throws Off the Imperial Yoke

Tipperary Star 2 May 1953
A meeting of the South Tipperary Committee of Agriculture, which called for the introduction of the metric system to Ireland. After a debate where no 0.25 was asked or given (but neither was there so much as 28.34 grams of malice) members voted to go the whole 8.23 metres and embrace the foreign measurements which were thought to be “much easier to understand, especially for the children going to school”. However, it would be another 17 years before the currency was decimalised, and near fifty before we were going the extra 1.609344 kilometres and ridding our signposts of their miles. Mr. E. Stokes will be glad to hear, however, that we have, of course, clinged lovingly to “The Pint”.