The Irish School of Motoring was first established in Amiens Street, Central Dublin, in 1904, as an exclusive vendor of automobiles. An integral part of the marketing of these fascinating and first cars in 1904 was the business of teaching people to drive them. This consisted for the most part in the "garage-man" showing the purchaser "how to work the gears" and as there was no driving licence requirement, this was the sum total of the drivers education.
Things changed however in 1961, when John and Pat Walsh, two brothers from Dungarvan with a passion for all things motoring, acquired the Irish School of Motoring company. They began their instruction service with just two cars from a premisis in Dorset Street, Dublin, which today is the head office of ISM and location of the Nationwide call-centre, servicing all franchised instructors.
Now operating for over 44 years, we are the largest and most professional Driving School in Ireland and are very proud of the overall unequalled 90% test pass rate achieved by our test candidates. This proves beyond doubt the value of taking lessons with one of our highly trained A.D.I. qualified instructors.
Today, John, Pat and Karl Walsh are the directors of Ireland's only Nationwide Driving School. Hundreds of thousands of people have been taught to drive by our team of 120 A.D.I. qualified instructors operating nationwide, offering comprehensive training for both beginners and advanced drivers and using a variety of vehicles covering all categories.
Indeed, back in 1964 when the Government Driving Test was introduced, the first person ever to pass was taught by an ISM instructor.