Re: 'Button A-B' and grey payphones.
The Black button A/B phones were still in use in the Republic of Ireland well into the late 80's, after moving here in 1981 from the UK it was strange to use them again - I also recall re-using the 'tapping out the number' ruse which I had learnt as a 9 year old in Sussex, just before the grey box was installed in my local village phone box!
Incidentally you couldn't (officially) direct dial the UK from Ireland back then, although if one wrote down the routing that the operators used when placing a call (Manchester Guardian was involved as I recall) you sometimes could dial yourself. Although tapping was theoretically possible, the chance of a mistake on a long string of digits was almost certain!!
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