The original series of license plate identifiers issued in the island of Ireland was part of the British system introduced in 1903. Uniquely, identifiers in Ireland contained the letter I as part of 38 two-letter codes that were allocated in alphabetical order to the 32 counties, two cities (Dublin and Belfast) and four county boroughs (Cork, Limerick, Waterford and Derry). The initial registration format consisted of the two-letter code followed by a sequence number of 1 to 9999. The codes allocated ran from IA to IZ, and then from AI to IW; the letters G, S and V were originally not used. In 1921 two additional codes, XI and YI, were issued to Belfast and Dublin, respectively.

The full list of original two-letter codes is shown below.

IA     Antrim

IB     Armagh

IC     Carlow

ID     Cavan

IE      Clare

IF      Cork County

IH      Donegal

IJ       Down

IK       Dublin County

IL       Fermanagh

IM      Galway

IN       Kerry

IO       Kildare

IP       Kilkenny

IR       Offaly (formerly King’s County)

IT        Leitrim

IU       Limerick County

IW      Londonderry County

IX     Longford

IY     Louth

IZ     Mayo

AI    Meath

BI    Monaghan

CI    Laois (formerly Queen’s County)

DI    Roscommon

EI    Sligo

FI    Tipperary North Riding

HI    Tipperary South Riding

JI     Tyrone

KI     Waterford County

LI     Westmeath

MI    Wexford

NI     Wicklow

OI     Belfast

PI     Cork City

RI    Dublin City

TI    Limerick City

UI    Derry

WI   Waterford City

XI    Belfast

YI    Dublin City

 

 

In 1922 the southern 26 counties of Ireland became the Irish Free State, with the remaining six counties becoming Northern Ireland. In the Irish Free State a new series of two-letter codes with the letter Z in first place (eg, ZA) came into use in 1927. In Northern Ireland the new two-letter codes have Z in the second place (eg, HZ for Tyrone). The single-letter prefix Z was used in Dublin County from 1927 to 1938.

The list of two-letter codes with Z for the Irish Free State is as follows:

ZA     Dublin City

ZB     Cork County

ZC     Dublin City

ZD     Dublin City

ZE     Dublin County

ZF     Cork City

ZH     Dublin City

ZI      Dublin City

ZJ     Dublin City

ZK     Cork County

ZL     Dublin City

ZM    Galway

ZN     Meath

ZO     Dublin

ZP     Donegal

ZR     Wexford

ZT     Cork County

ZU     Dublin

ZW    Kildare

ZX     Kerry

ZY     Louth

ZZ    Temporary registrations

Z       Dublin County

Having exhausted all available two-letter codes, Dublin issued a three-letter, three-digit format (eg, ARI 123) in May, 1954. Other registration authorities adopted this format once all two-letter combinations had been issued. In Co Leitrim, a rural western county, this process took until 1972 to complete. In 1970 Dublin exhausted all its three-letter combinations and began issuing “reversed” registrations (eg, 1234 RI). In 1982, with Dublin and several other counties having exhausted all possible combinations of their original two-letter codes, codes including G, S and V were assigned to a number of registration authorities. These additional codes are as follows:

IS     Mayo

IV     Limerick

GI    Tipperary South Riding

SI     Dublin

ZG    Dublin

ZS    Dublin

ZV   Vehicles 30+ years old

From 1903 to 1969 all license plate had been white or silver characters on a black base. In 1969 the option of black-on-white in the front and black-on-red in the rear was introduced. In subsequent years drivers exercised significant creativity with regards to colours, fonts and plate sizes with their allotted registrations.

Today, a vanishingly-small number of plates from the 1903-1986 series is seen on Irish roads. These plates must remain with the original vehicle and cannot be transferred to other vehicles. Thus, in time, these plates will be become rarer and rarer. The plates photographs below were primarily seen (in the rain!) at a classic car meet held as a feature of the Mallow Garden Festival on May 27th, 2018.

Plates of Co Clare

These plates were issued in 1975 and 1986.

Plates of Cork City

These plates were issued in 1973, 1976, 1982, 1985 and 1986.

 

 

License Plates of Co Cork.

These plates were issued circa 1922, and in 1952, 1967, 1972, 1973,1977, 1980, 1984 and 1985.

 

 

 

 

 

 

License Plates of Donegal

This plate was issued circa 1967.

 

License Plates of Dublin

These plates were issued in 1952, 1963, 1964, 1971, 1975, 1982, and 1986.

License Plates of Galway

The license plate was issued in 1973

License Plates of Kerry

This plate was issued in 1954.

License Plates of Kildare

This license plate was issued circa 1977.

 

License Plates of Kilkenny

This plates were issued in 1973 and 1974.

 

 

License Plates of Limerick City

This plates were issued circa 1967.

 

 

 

License Plates of Co Limerick

These plates were issued in 1971, circa 1978 and circa 1981.

 

License Plates of Meath

This license plate was issued circa 1950.

 

License Plates of Tipperary South Riding

This plate was issued circa 1979.

 

License Plates of Waterford City

This plate was issued circa 1968.

 

License Plates of Westmeath

This plate was issued circa 1981.

 

 

Kilkenny license plate VIP 1: the true story!

In 1974 the sought-after plate VIP 1 was issued to Bill Finnegan, founder of the Kilkenny Beer Festival, for his Jaguar XJ6. The licensing authority apparently assigned it to him in recognition of his contributions to the county. In the late 1970’s Bill Finnegan moved to London to work with Gulf Oil. Since the registration was technically assigned to an Irish car he was unable to move the plate to another vehicle. He sold the plate (and the car) for £5,500. In 1989 the pate was sold at auction for £92,000. In July 2006 Roman Abramovich, owner of Chelsea Football Club, acquired the  VIP 1 plate for His Rolls Royce Corniche IV convertible for £285,000.

During the visit of Pope John Paul II to Ireland in 1979 a replica VIP 1 plate was made for the (unlicensed) Popemobile.

Source: Ruadhán Mac Cormaic: “VIP 1: Abramovic buys trophy Irish license plate”, The Irish Times, July 7th, 2006