On September 16th 1939 Seán Lemass became minister of supplies in the government, and on the same day introduced an order covering the official rationing of petrol, to begin in October. The official allowance was eight gallons a month for cars up to 10bhp; 12 gallons a month for cars 10-16bhp and a bit extra for doctors, vets, priests and commercial travellers.
People's lives were severely affected as rationing and petrol shortages took hold. Petrol availability became a major problem and public transport almost ceased. The bicycle underwent a revival, and came to be worth its weight in gold. At the same time there was an increase in horse-drawn traffic while motorists sought to find an alternative fuel.
One of the alternatives to petrol, when supplies of it became unavailable, was gas, and a number of motorists adapted their vehicles for its use. The gas used could be obtained either from the gas mains or from a gas producer, one of which is shown here. This required extensive modifications to carry the necessary equipment. This particular installation contained 70 pounds of fuel in the generator - sufficient for around 140 miles of motoring. This was considerably less efficient than running on petrol, but it did provide an alternative - as long as supplies of anthracite were available.
Another alternative and one which required considerably less modification to a car was a "gasbag". With this, gas from the mains was stored in a large gasbag which ran the length of the car and was fixed to the roof. Since supplies of gas were limited to towns with mains gas, their range was very limited and they were unsuitable for distance motoring.
As well as this major drawback there were very practical problems in their operation. Gasbags tended to make cars unstable in windy weather, and when they deflated as the stored gas was used up, they flapped continuously and this, together with their exposure to the elements meant that they needed continuous repair and replacement.
The small numbers of motorists who went to the expense of converting cars to gas for fuel were not put off the road. Rather as they received no supplies of petrol or tyres and no guarantee of supplies of fuel for making gas, through time they too disappeared off Irish roads as supplies of coal and anthracite dwindled.
As the Emergency continued into 1944, the petrol ration, tiny as it was, was still supplied to doctors and clergymen living in the cities but even this was withdrawn in April of that year, causing private motoring to end for the duration of hostilities.