Colin McKenzie ) gurgled happily, sounding much
like they were saying :

Anyone know why Northern Ireland never adopted any of the year-letter
formats. I'd have thought the army would have wanted a unified system
so that British soldiers' private cars were not quite so obviously
different from Northern Irish residents' cars, so as to lessen the
chance of them being IRA targets.

I think it was for compatibility with the rest of Ireland, though it
continued after the Republic went over to a new system in the late
'80s. I think they use the same system as the rest of the UK now.

No, they're still their own sweet way. There's no "space" in the current UK
system for any NI regi offices - besides, they don't even use DVLA - they
use their own registration authority.