Before AA Roadwatch came AA Telephones

While regarded now largely as a provider of breakdown assistance and motor insurance, the Automobile Association had a wider remit in the past. It installed signs to direct motorists and warn them of hazards. And in the 1920s, it got into the telephone business in the UK and the newly-independent Irish Free State.

The AA began to install phone boxes which members could use to summon help in the event of a breakdown. While connected to the regular telephone system, they were not public telephones and had to be unlocked with a key which was issued by the AA to its members. There was no coinbox mechanism – members could make a local call for free, but for other calls they were expected to leave the appropriate amount in an ‘honesty box’¹ or reverse the charges. In the days when all trunk and – in many places, local – calls were connected by an operator, this was pretty easy to monitor.

The network was extended to Ireland in 1927, with the first roadside boxes being installed in Carryduff, outside Belfast and Shankill, Co. Dublin. In addition to a telephone, the boxes displayed the phone numbers and addresses of the local doctor, police station, approved hotels and garages. They also contained, at different periods, first-aid kits, fire extinguishers and touring maps.

Within a few weeks, the Irish Independent was reporting that ‘Extensive use has been made by motorists of the roadside telephone stations… and the number of calls registered indicates that this latest addition to the amenities of the road fills a long felt want².‘

In a 1949 review of the AA’s members’ Handbook, the Cork Examiner mourned that the association’s …’telephone boxes are not as general in Ireland as in the other island, but there are several on important routes and junctions‘³.

The network in Ireland was expanded in the early 50s so that by 1954, there were over 12 roadside boxes with a stated aim of reaching 20⁴. In the end, the network grew to about 34 boxes across the island, split equally between the two jurisdictions⁵. It was a pretty meagre number, representing less than 4% of the total network of 862 boxes across Great Britain, both parts of Ireland, the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands.

The heyday of the AA roadside telephone box was the late 50s and early 60s. By the late 1960s some were being removed⁶, though members were still issued with keys.

As a child I was fascinated by the key on my dad’s keyring with the AA logo on its diamond-shaped bow. My father explained how it could be used to open one of these boxes, but we never seemed to see one on our travels from Dublin, which makes me think that many had been removed by the late 1960s. I remember some excitement when we finally spotted one, I think, on the old N1 at Blakes Cross, probably box 648 on the list below.

One reason for their removal was the expansion of the public telephone network which made the AA telephones increasingly redundant. The growing motorway network, with its own emergency telephone system, removed traffic from the roads provided with AA boxes.

The death-knell was sounded by the arrival of the mobile phone as a mass product in the 1990s. The AA decommissioned its last remaining boxes in the UK in 2002; it is likely that the last boxes in Ireland were removed well before that.

Quietly and unmourned, the AA’s contribution to telecommunications history draw to a close.

For more about the history of telecommunications in Ireland, check out my other blog posts.

List of AA telephone boxes in Ireland

Box No	Name	Telephone No.	Location	Installed	Notes
?	Carryduff	Unknown	Near the junction of the A24 and A7	1927	1
643	Killeen	Newry 2500	Newry – Dundalk A.1 / 3 miles from Newry
644	Ballcarry	Whitehead 2232	Belfast – Larne A.2 / 1 3/4 miles northwest of Whitehead	1928	7
645	Loughbrickland	Banbridge 2116	Newry – Banbridge A.1 / 3miles south of Banbridge	1930	8 Preserved at the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum
646	Culcrum	Cloughmills 209	Ballymena – Ballymoney A.26 / Ballycastle A.44	1930	8
647	Shankill	Bray 2644	Dublin – Bray T.7 / Dalkey T.44 / 1 3/4 miles north of Bray	1927	Removed in late 1960s6
648	Dawsbridge	Swords 203	Dublin – Drogheda T.1 / Skerries L.90
649	Dunkettle	Glanmire 44	Cork – Fermoy T.6 / Midleton T.12
671	Roughfort	Glengormley 316	Belfast – Antrim A.6 / Roughfort – Ballycraigy (Unclass)	1952	9
672	Drumgor	Lurgan 3104	Lurgan – Portadown A.3 / 2 1/2 miles northeast of Portadown	1952	9
673	Fivemiletown	Fivemiletown 232	Clogher – Fivemiletown A.4 / 1 mile east of Fivemiletown	1952	9
674	Ballykelly	Limavady 207	Limavady – Londonderry A.2 / 4 1/2 miles west of Limavady	1952	10
675	Damhead	Coleraine 2596	Coleraine – Ballymoney A.26 / 220 yds. southeast of Loughan – Ballybogey (Unclass) / 3 1/2 miles southeast of Coleraine
676	Tullyhinan	Banbridge 2280	Banbridge 2280 – Dronmore A.1 / 2 1/2 miles northeast of Bandridge	1952	9
690	Killcullen	Kilcullen 41	Naas – Athy T.6 / Carlow T.51
691	Curragh	Curragh 69	Naas – Kildare T.5 3 3/4 miles east of Kildare
692	Cahir	Cahir 273	Cahir – Mitchelstown T.6 / 3 miles southwest of Cahir
693	Coachford	Coachford 33	Cork – Macroom T.29 / 2 miles west of Coachford
694	Patrickswell	Patrickswell	Limerick – Mallow T.11 / Limerick – Tralee T.28 / 6 1/2 miles southwest of Limerick
695	Meeting-of-the-Waters	Avoca 30	Rathdrum – Arklow / 2 1/4 miles from Avoca / 4 1/4 miles from Woodenbridge		Removed in late 1960s6
696	Dungarvan	Dungarvan 143	Waterford – Dungarvan T.12 / Lismore T.30
697	Mullins Cross	Dunleer 35	Drogheda – Dundalk T.1 / South of Junction Mansfieldtown (Unclass)
698	Dunboyne	Donboyne 261	Dublin – Navan T.35 / 170 yds. from Dunboyne junction into Meath / 1 mile from Dunboyne / 8 miles from Dunshaughlin
699	Moate	Moate 39	Moate – Kilbeggan / 1.9 miles east Moate T.4
700	Rathcoole	Rathcoole 289247	Dublin – Naas T.5 / 3/4 mile from Rathcoole
701	Collooney	Collooney 24	Boyle – Collooney T.3 / 1 mile approx. south of Collooney at Toberscanavan
768	Verner’s Bridge	Anaghmore 274	Portadown – Dungannon A.4 / Maghery B.196
769	Springwell	Coleraine 3576	Coleraine / Limavady A.37 / 7/3/4 miles southwest of Coleraine
790	Beltony	Newtownstewart 287	Omagh – Newtownstewart A.5 / 3 miles Newtownstewart
791	Bready	Londonderry 3879	Londonderry – Strabane A.5 / 6 1/2 miles southwest of Londonderry
851	Leixlip	Lucan 231	Dublin – Galway T.3 / 1/2 mile west of Leixlip
881	Binmore	Derrygonnelly 249	Enniskillen – Belleek A.46 . 12 miles northwest of Enniskillen
909	Merlin Park	Galway 4438	Galway – Dublin / 9 miles from Athenry / 18 1/4 miles from Louch Ben
914	Glenshane Pass	Dungiven 289	Maghera – Dungiven A.6 / 6 1/2 miles from Maghera / 6 1/2 miles from Dungiven

References

1 Belfast Newsletter, 15 October 1927

2 Irish Independent, 11 November 1927

3 Cork Examiner, 12 May 1949

4 Waterford News and Star, 10 September 1954

5 AA Roadside Telephone Boxes

6 Wicklow People, 30 December 1999

7 Londonderry Sentinel, 01 May 1928

8 Belfast Newsletter, 07 August 1930

9 Belfast Telegraph, 01 February 1952

10 Londonderry Sentinel, 01 April 1952