Dunmore East Bus Service

The service goes back before 1912 and originally started as a horse and carriage service. It was taken over by The Murphy family and then sold to Richard Flynn in the 1950's. Seamus Lynch then took over the business in the 1960's and Jimmy (The Bus) Cullinane would have started driving around then.

I remember getting the bus to school in Waterford in the late sixties. Hanging around by the Bay Cafe. Sitting in the bus in the morning, freezing cold, waiting for Jimmy to arrive. He would appear in a big heavy coat and try to start the engine, which must have been really cold. We would pray that the engine would not start, because that meant a day off school, but Jimmy would open a hatch in the floor and mess around with something in there, the engine I presume, which would then groan into life.

The bus was quite exciting as we got to that age when we became interested in girls, and could also be a place of entertainment. Now and then there would be a guitar or two at the back of the bus (the back was always the place to be) and I don't know how Jimmy kept his concentration with the racket that went on.

"Stop ye'er kafflin' ", he would say. "Ye have free travel and free transport and still ye'er not satisfied"

The buses we got always seemed to be old crocks that were imported from England, where they would not be allowed on the roads anymore. There was an emergency door in the back and when the bus stopped at Newtown on the way in, the cool thing to do was to open this door and jump out without Jimmy catching you.

Sometimes the bus would get very full, I remember one time an inspector following the bus in his car to count how many passengers got on.

On occasions such as this Jimmy would turn around and roar down the bus "Double up, three in a seat!"

Tribute should be paid to Linda Doyle, who collected fares on the buses as long as I can remember.

Louis.