PastImperfect: 'Peter Wanderwide': In the years leading up to 1916 the keen Irish motorist was also likely to be a devoted reader of The Motor News, the pioneering Irish motor journal, founded by RJ Mecredy, to which we have often referred to in this column.
Among the 'must read' features in each edition was a column penned under the pseudonym 'Peter Wanderwide'. More often than not, the 'Peter Wanderwide' column would tell of the glories of exploring the more remote parts of Ireland by motor car in superbly written prose.
But surprisingly, particularly for the time, 'Peter Wanderwide' concealed the name of a young woman writer, Mabel Richards, surely one of the first women to write about cars and motoring. Her column 'Out and About' dealt almost exclusively with the joys of motoring on the open road and must have served to inspire a whole generation of Irish motorists to get out and explore this country's varied highways and byways.
She had been a passenger on the first organised motor touring trip in Ireland - the 1900 Run to Killaloe - and from that first journey had developed a love of the motor car and its possibilities for exploration of this island. Words she wrote in 1914 concerning taking the time to enjoy our roads seem particularly appropriate today: "It is not by speeding along main roads, no matter how great the mileage, that one comes to know and love a country. It is by penetrating to the unknown, the out-of-the-way, the heart of things. Even the tourist has become obsessed by the speed habit, and drives from one show place to another, with no thought of what lies between. To learn to go easily - 'not to hurry, not to worry' - is a lesson all motorists might take to heart with no loss to themselves, and infinite gain. We have today, in the motor car, a means of absorbing scenery, history, geography, local colour. That we do not avail ourselves, to the full of this modern boon is a shame and a pity."
From her regular column and the many other articles she supplied to The Motor News it's clear that Mabel Richards was not just a woman motorist, but a woman motorist with a high degree of mechanical knowledge and who was often called upon by male readers for mechanical advice and also regarding what car they should purchase. She also seems to have fearlessly travelled to the most remote parts of Ireland confident in the belief that she could handle any situation which presented itself.
But it is for her writings about her love of the Irish countryside and her exploration by car of the roads that wander across our landscape that she most deserves to be remembered. Sadly, her time was to be short, for following a long illness borne with remarkable courage, Mabel Richards died in Dublin's Adelaide Hospital at Easter 1916, while within earshot, could be heard the sounds of the Easter Rising.