Retired FDNY Firefighter Tommy May and the Irish Toll Plaza on M8 in Tipperary

10/11/2022 We left Dublin this morning enroute County Cork. The first toll we ran into brought me back in time to when I was a young fireman in the Bronx. Living on Long Island I had to transit the Throgsneck Bridge to get to my firehouse, Engine Company 89 located on the Bruckner Service Road and Tremont Avenue. When I started working in that fire house the toll each way was $1.25, and when I left 12 years later it was $3.75. I think I was in the fire house a couple of months when Eddie Hession, one of the senior men in Ladder 50, who shared quarters with us, had asked me if I was paying the toll to get to work to which I replied, “Yes, how do you think I’m getting over the bridge!” He went on to tell me that there was always a toll booth that wasn’t working and to look for the gate in the up position. With the completion of my tour, I left for home. Approaching the toll plaza, I scanned for the broken toll gate that Eddie/Stick assured me was there. Low and behold, sure enough there it was! That trick lasted about two months for me. The next trick was to check the change drawer on the toll plaza which occasionally worked. Then there was the scanning of the area for change and tokens that never made it into the basket as motorists would miss the basket or ricochet the token from the basket to the ground below. One morning while carpooling with Lieutenant Bobby Fleming L-50 he stopped the car approximately fifty feet from the toll plaza and exited the vehicle. There was a Bridge and Tunnel Police Officer standing post duty outside the toll plaza leaning up against the barrier. As Bob exited the vehicle, he said in a loud voice, “Don’t anybody move, I got it!” As the Police Officer came to attention to see what the ruckus was all about Bob was already behind the steering wheel. You needed good eyesight for that trick as he had spotted a bridge token five car lengths from the toll plaza. Leaving Dublin we were traveling southwest on M8 on our way to Cork when we encountered our first toll plaza in the Tipperary area. As we approached I looked down at the change drawer where I noticed a bunch of gold euro (2 Euros 2 Pence) coins. I immediately went back in time to one of my best finds at the Throgsneck Bridge toll plaza, while working at my beloved Engine 89. It was either 1987 or 1988 when I made my way into the firehouse that early Thanksgiving morning, looking to relieve one of the senior men. I threw my token into the basket then reached into the change draw. My best find to date, fourteen tokens! I actually thought about turning around to try it again! God Bless the senior men of Engine 89 and Ladder 50 aka “The Cuckoos Nest.” I loved working with those menShow more

I wrote this story while listening to Jimmy Morrison and Tim O’Riordan play at Dwyer’s Pub on Washington St in Cork while eating dinner with my wife Anne and my son Michael. My first trip to Ireland; the birthplace of my mother, and the first Irish Pub I stepped foot in. I hope you enjoyed the story. Tommy May