To travel it is to know it. That's why more than 100 cars went in convoy yesterday from Blennerville to the offices of Kerry County Council in Tralee to say that enough is enough.
They gathered at the restored Blennerville windmill and wound their way with lights flashing and horns hooting to the local authority building where there was a council meeting.
They were given leave to address the council about the condition of the Tralee-Dingle road (N86), reckoned to be third-busiest tourist route in the State. But if it is, no one seems to be taking much notice. In winter the road is at best passable when there is not too much traffic. In the tourist season it becomes a nightmare.
The motorcade to the council's offices was dignified, and there was not too much traffic disruption. When the protesters arrived, they were ushered into various parking spaces and shown into the council chamber. If the same motorcade had tried to negotiate the Tralee-Dingle road, the N86 might be backed up until Christmas.
Ms Brigid O'Connor, spokeswoman, told the council that her group, West Kerry Road users, included people from Camp, Annascaul, Lispole, The Maherees, Cloghane, Brandon and Curaheen. They were no longer willing to put up with inadequate infrastructure never designed for the traffic volume that the Tralee-Dingle road is being asked to accommodate.
In a straight-talking list of demands, she said: "The commitment to road repairs in west Kerry is totally inadequate; we demand a proper upgrade as a basic civil right; we are not taking No for an answer; we will follow this to the highest level in the land, and to Europe if necessary; we promote walking and cycling holidays in the Dingle Peninsula, but we do not make provision for them on our roads; cyclists, motorcyclists and pedestrians have no chance on our roads; we are spending millions promoting but we do not have the proper infrastructure to support it."
Ms O'Connor also told the councillors that west Kerry motorists were sick and tired of their cars being subjected to some of the most spectacular potholes in Ireland which were causing immense damage and cost. Like many another community, she thought this made road taxation a sick joke.
She said that the intention of her group was to press its case at Government level first and, if this was not successful, to bring it to Europe on the grounds of European citizens' right to demand health and safety provisions from a national government within the Union.
Two people had been killed on the road recently, one an elderly man cycling to a pub quizz at Curaheen, and the other a woman walking near Lispole. Inadequate lighting and road markings and the inadequacy of the road itself meant that two trucks or buses couldn't pass on it. Locals and tourists who pass this way will know exactly what she means.
There was another concern, she told the meeting. The Killarney-Dingle road at Inch was collapsing because of coastal erosion and might have to be closed. If that happened, all traffic to Dingle would have to use the N86 via Tralee. As the tourist season began to gear up, this was not a prospect to be relished, she said.