Trucking Food From Ireland to Italy, 1973

A report on the journey across Europe taken by the long distance lorry driver Stoney Burke. A look at the changing landscape, infrastructure, and life on the road on a journey in a truck across Europe. The long distance truck driver is the true existential man. A report from the series ‘Scope’ on the journey across Europe taken by the long distance lorry driver Stoney Burke with his cargo of beef bound for the municipal market in Rome. The variety of food and languages are just some of the challenges facing the long haul truck driver who is under constant pressure to arrive at the final destination. The report shows the RTÉ reporter Paddy Gallagher travelling with Paddy Burke, known as Stoney Burke from Waterford, via Rosslare to Rome and on to Ravenna in a trans-continental juggernaut. Stoney Burke takes a truck of meat to the Meat Market in Rome and travels to Ravenna to pick up a back-load, a truck of apples for the Fruit Market in Dublin. This extract shows the men crossing the Alps, eating in trucker cafes, motorways, tollgates and customs stops. The language barrier is something facing most long distance truck drivers who cross countries and cultures every day. Gallagher talks to: a Spanish gypsy truck driver who lives in Paris; a British truck driver who claims bribes are expected by Italian officials; and a French female truck driver who usually delivers fish from Marseille to areas around Lyon or along the German border. Gallagher highlights the loneliness and the unpleasant aspects of life on the road across Europe.