In the early days, the only form of public transport in Galway was provided by the Bianconi company, and it connected the city to outlying towns and villages. Some local entrepreneurs probably ran a hackney service, but the main mobile traffic on the road would have been privately owned horse-drawn carts of various types.
Our first photograph was taken at 3.30pm, c1930 is of a Galway General Omnibus Company vehicle passing Dillon’s Corner on its way to Salthill. It is a Morris-Commercial, registration IM 1834 with a 20-seat body which was made in Galway by Fahy Brothers in Forster Street. At the time Fahys made most of the bodywork for cars, buses and vans that came to Galway.
There had been a horse-drawn tramway connecting Galway and Salthill since 1879, it ran successfully for almost forty years, but most of the company’s horses were commandeered by the British Army during WWI, and motorised transport was becoming the in-thing. The availability of ex-army vehicles in quantity at cheap prices was a major help in getting many Irish bus companies started. The Galway General Omnibus Company started operations with three vehicles: A 35-seater charabanc, a 49-seater double-decker with an open deck and the 20-seater in our photograph.
Breakdowns were frequent occurrences. The chain coming off was a regular complaint, and passengers would often have to get out and push. The crest on the side panels was the arms of Galway; the Irish name appeared in Gaelic script underneath the windows. The garage was in Victoria Place, behind the railway station. The company was nationalised and taken over by Great Southern Railways on August 5, 1936, and they began to gradually expand the public transport network around the city.
Our second image, dated August 1951, is of a Leyland Tiger Bus, known as a T4, waiting at the bus stop on Williamsgate Street. It was one of only eight diesel engined single decker buses which passed to CIE in 1945 and stayed in service until 1960. The population of Renmore was very small at the time. This was the Renmore bus which ran every 50 minutes and was, at the time, the only vehicle required to maintain a service between Taylor's Hill and Renmore. The service ran originally just to Moneenageesha but was later extended to Renmore Barracks.
The drivers on this route were Gerry Lally and Mickey Pender and the conductors were ‘Hycie’ Darcy and Christy Gilbert. At the time, the Salthill route was a much busier route and had more regular services, and, during the summer, was supplemented by every available bus, especially on fine days. We know this photograph was taken either on a Sunday or a Thursday afternoon as all the shops in the background, McNamara’s, Faller’s, Forken’s and Frank McDonagh’s were closed either for the Sabbath or the half-day.
The first double-decker caused huge excitement when it went into service on the Salthill route in the mid-fifties. Everyone wanted to go upstairs, preferably to the front seats and the young ‘hards’ had a chance to show off by swinging off the platform as the bus pulled into the stop.
These images featured in a book entitled Wheels Around Connaught by Cyril McIntyre that was published some 20 years ago.
