THE only level of violent death and injury corresponding to last week's carnage of 24 people on Irish roads in recent times in this island was the week in November 1993, which began with the IRA's bombing of Frizzell's fishshop and ended with the loyalist attack on the Rising Sun bar, in Greysteel, Co Derry.
A total of 26 people died violently in the North in that period.
The slaughter in Northern Ireland in November, 1993, dominated news coverage for weeks and attracted international attention. Violent road deaths in the past seven days have attracted virtually no comment other than matter of fact reporting.
The worst single incident of the week left four people, including a mother, her four year old daughter and two men dead, after an articulated lorry went out of control outside Askeaton, Co Limerick, on Wednesday. A two year old girl who was strapped in the baby seat in the back of the car in which her mother and sister died remains critical.
The Limerick accident fits the general pattern of serious road accidents - it occurred on a busy main route which has oncoming traffic. The principal main routes, particularly those radiating from Dublin and between the main provincial towns, can no longer safely sustain the level of traffic now using them, gardai concede privately. But the issue is only ever fleetingly debated.
Some 16 of those who died in the Republic and Northern Ireland in the past week died on main rural roads.
The next biggest category of deaths were the four elderly people struck and killed in city traffic, two in Belfast and two in Dublin. Three men died in urban traffic accidents and an 18 year old girl was struck and killed in a Co Ant rim town.
The May bank holiday weekend, saw the worst spate of motorcycle accidents in recent memory.
In three of the accidents the motorcycles involved were reported by eyewitnesses to have been on the wrong side of the road when they collided with oncoming four wheeled vehicles.
Two young men from the village of Rathvilly, Co Carlow are believed to have been on the wrong side of the road when they were killed on Sunday evening in a head on collision with a car.
According to a witness report their motorcycle had actually crossed on to the hard shoulder of the wrong side of the road between Clonmore and Tullow and was being steered back across the road when it hit the approaching car.
The two youths were on a Yamaha 100 cc motorcycle. They were travelling on a minor road in windy conditions, which could have blown the motorcycle across the road.
A Co Dublin motorcyclist was reported to have been on the wrong side of the road when he was killed instantly as his powerful 1,000cc machine collided head on with a car opposite Blackrock College on the Rock Road on Saturday afternoon.
According to witnesses, Mr Mark Clark (35), a motorcycling enthusiast from Fox rock, was travelling at considerable speed when he struck an oncoming car on a bend notorious for road accidents on the Rock Road. He died almost immediately.
Gardai could not recall a worse weekend for road accidents. In probably the most extraordinary incident, one Co Meath man was killed and another very seriously injured when two motorcycles collided on a Co Meath country road.
Gardai believe the spate of unrelated accidents occurred simply because the May bank holiday weekend is the traditional time for motorcyclists to first take to the roads in numbers after the winter.
According to gardai and motorcycling figures, the May weekend is often manned by motorcycling accidents because both riders and machines tend to be out of condition alter the winter lay up. None, however, can remember such a bad weekend for fatal accidents.
None could remember an accident like that at Skryne, Co Meath, on the back road from Finglas to Navan, on Sunday evening when two motorcycles collided, causing the death of one rider and very severe injury to the other.
The man who died, Christopher Coffey, a single man aged 36 from Skryne, had been testriding a 100cc motorcycle which he had bought on Saturday for a neighbour's son when he was in collision with the other motorcycle, a much heavier and vastly more powerful 1000cc machine.
Mr Coffey died at the scene. The other rider, a 25 year old man from Duleek, Co Meath, was being treated in the Mater Hospital for severe back and head injuries. His condition was "stable".
The other fatal accident involving a motorcycle was in Co Kerry on Sunday, when Anita Lyne (17), a passenger on a 125cc motorcycle driven by a 17 year old youth, hit a tractor head on outside their home village of Lixnaw. Ms Lyne died instantly. The youth who owns the motorcycle is recovering in hospital.
Mr Tony Toner, road safety officer with the Motorcycle Union of Ireland (MCUI), yeslerday said he could not recall a worse weekend for road accidents.
He called for a national training programme for motorcyclists similar to the Compulsory Basic Training (CBT) scheme in Britain, which motorcyclists must complete: The Republic, he pointed out, is one of the few countries in Europe which does not have such a compulsory scheme.
"I would welcome a national training programme. The weekend shows the need for an education for riders. Motorcycling is great fun. It's exhilarating, but there is no reason why anybody who does it should get hurt or broken up. We have to protect people from themselves by ensuring that training to a high standard is available."
He said even small engined motorcycles, such as the 100cc and 125cc machines which were involved in four of the weekend's fatal accidents, were capable of speeds of up to 115 miles per hour. It's the case with both cars and bikes that the vehicles are often beyond the ability levels of the drivers.
However, he said, in the majority of accidents involving motor cycles the rider was not at fault. The condition of roads and the behaviour of other vehicle drivers was most commonly the cause of accidents involving motorcyclists.
Statistically, the high incidence of deaths at the weekend, is regarded as a "blip" rather than an indication of an increasing trend of motorcycling accidents. The Republic, with around 27,000 registered motorcycles, has an annual rate of around 50 motorcycling deaths. This means motorcyclists have, roughly, a 10 times higher chance of being killed than four wheeled vehicle drivers.
The incidence of motorcycling deaths in Northern Ireland is lower, with seven dying last year and one so far this year. There was a considerable amount of motorcycling activity in the North as well at the weekend but no serious accidents reported.