Cumbred School of Motoring

There's a fella does the big roundabout every morning like the lanes are a rumour he heard once and didn't fancy believing. Grand. He passed a test the same as anyone. That's the bit nobody warns you about: passing is the handy part, and driving well long after is the actual job. That's what we do out of Finglas.

Twenty-odd years I've spent in the passenger seat of a dual-control wagon on this side of the city, and a coach before that, so I've a fair notion of what goes wrong before it does. This page isn't a sales pitch with the varnish still wet on it. It's the plain version of how the whole thing works, so you leave it wiser than you landed.

Get the running order right, because most people take it backways. Sit the theory test first. The official theory test is forty questions and you need thirty-five, and it's the stopping-distance ones that catch the cocky. Pass that and you can apply for your learner permit. Then the twelve EDT lessons, Essential Driver Training, the mandatory dozen that Ballina, in their wisdom, decided nobody should skip, so you don't learn the whole trade off an uncle. Then you sit out the six months the permit makes you wait. Then, and only then, the test itself.

Why learn in Finglas

We work off a quiet stretch of Finglas, which suits a jittery first-timer down to the ground. You get a few lessons on streets where stalling the wagon costs you nothing but a red face, long before we point you at the busy carry-on on the Finglas Road or out toward the N2. Quiet first, real traffic after, in that order. Nobody ever learned the clutch with a bus growling up behind them.

The other handy thing about Finglas is how much sits inside a small radius. Tight residential corners for your reversing and your looking, busier junctions once you've earned them, and the sort of roundabouts that turn up on the test, all near enough that no lesson gets wasted just driving somewhere to start. You learn on the ground you'll be tested on, which is the only way that makes any sense.

Start where you're worst

Pick the thing that puts the heart crossways in you and read that one first. Every card below is a mistake I've watched happen from the passenger seat, written up so it doesn't happen to you.

The rest of it

The whole lot, if you'd sooner just read your way down through it. Take your pick.

• Driving lessons in Finglas
• EDT in Finglas
• Finding a driving school around here
• Getting ready for the test
• Picking a school that's actually any good
• Road safety for new drivers
• Online or in-person lessons
• Dual carriageway or motorway
• On the nerves before the test
• The full range of what we do
• Back to the top

Look further up the road than feels natural, and never take a roundabout on a hope. That's the whole site in one breath.