Throwback Thursday: 'I used to drive revellers to Majorca in Crosshaven'

Our mention in a recent Throwback Thursday of those special evening buses that used to run from the Grand Parade down to the Majorca in Crosshaven for the big showband dances struck a chord with Tony Daly, a former bus driver, who immediately wrote in.

“I remember doing that stint on many Saturdays,” recalled Tony. “The duty for that roster started at 1600 (4pm) with general routes. You had a break for an hour around 1800 (6pm), then headed down to the Grand Parade where the queues would already be forming.

“You loaded up and were off to Crosshaven to arrive before 2200 (10pm). Then you had another break until, I think, one or two in the morning.

“After that, it was back to Cork as fast as possible, in our low-flying double deckers!”

What images you resurrect, Tony! All the lads in their best suits, hoping to meet some grand girls, the ladies in their finest outfits (maybe with a raincoat in case of inclement weather while queueing).

The wafting odours of perfume, hairspray, and aftershave must have rendered the Grand Parade into something like a Middle Eastern souk for passers-by!

There were a few handy benefits to be considered for the bus drivers, too.

“On a very busy night, a lucky few would arrive down at the Majorca after 10pm, which meant overtime. Due to union rules, you were paid right through, ie, no break. This could mean two or more hours overtime,” said Tony.

“Of course, the inspectors would do their best to get us all away from the city before 9.15pm, so as to get to Crosshaven within the normal working hours.

“It was a cushy if boring duty, but the owners of the Majorca did supply some liquid refreshments to all the bus crews.”

Well, that was nice of them. It must have been a bit of a long wait, though, while those inside the hall danced the hours away.

Did any of you ever go in and watch, or even take a chance and get a swing round the floor yourselves, Tony?

Memories like this are so valuable, so thank you, Mr Daly, for that.

We hear more often from those who used the bus services, but very rarely from the drivers and conductors, and we would really like to hear more.

Railway staff, too - in fact anyone on the other side of the ticket barrier, the coffee counter, the turnstile, where customer meets control. Write and tell us your memories!

And Tony, we would definitely like to hear more of your own experiences On De Buses!

Buses, whether in the city or on long distance country routes, were so important in our lives back 40 or 50 years ago.

You depended on them to get you from your home up to the town, to school, or across from Dublin to Galway, Cork to Limerick. Trains too.

It’s a great pity so many of those services have ceased running. If you read a novel set in, say, 1920s Ireland, you will find details of myriad cross-country trains, changes at rural stations, being able to get from one end of this island to the other with a reasonable expectation of reaching your destination the same day.

These days, with most people using private transport (well, they were until the present fuel crisis struck) the buses and trains are mostly running at a loss.

Yes, we would all like to bring back the West Cork Railway – but would it survive and prosper? Would we really give up the convenience of our own cars, and door to door trips, in favour of walking to the nearest bus or railway station? I wonder. ’Twould be nice though, wouldn’t it?

Speaking of convenience, we take flights to foreign lands these days as a matter of course. If you tell friends you were in Lanzarote, it gets no more reaction than if you said you went down to Crosser for the day.

It would have to be darkest Peru or Outer Mongolia to raise an eyebrow. And yet, hasn’t air travel changed for the worse since our younger days?

Think back. Can you remember when flying, airports, the whole experience, was so much nicer?

At Cork Airport, we had that lovely turf fire in the arrivals hall so that visitors got the full Irish welcome the moment they disembarked. Smiling faces everywhere, making you feel you’d come somewhere really nice.

When you were leaving, your family and friends could go up on the outside balcony to give you one last wave as you boarded the plane.

Air fares were so high back then, you only used the service when it was absolutely necessary or as a special treat.

You might have to fly to England urgently for a family affair; or perhaps going on honeymoon? It certainly wasn’t something you did without long planning and calculation of the costs.

And you dressed up to travel then, it was a special experience. No shell suits or baggy sports trousers.

Jackets, ties for the menfolk, elegant suits and quite probably hats for the ladies.

And you were almost bowed down to on board by the staff, who looked genuinely delighted to see you, showed you where you might put your coat, helped with your seatbelt, and offered sweets to suck at take-off (remember those?)

And during the flight, they served free food and drinks with a smile.

There was some vying for superiority here. Some airlines boasted that they only used china plates and the best cutlery. Others claimed they had top chefs to create the dishes they served.

Because flying was viewed as a luxury experience, essentially, and they treated you accordingly.

Compare that with a typical flight today. Crowds, queues, hassle - and that’s just for trying to drop someone off at the terminal. Overstay the allowed minutes, and boy, are you in trouble!

There are strict rules within the airports now, on the luggage, the security, what you can and cannot bring on board.

The constant dread that your booking will somehow be wrong, that your luggage is overweight, that you aren’t on the passenger list, that you hadn’t ticked an important box, that (oh, horror) your phone has some undesirable posts or photos on it, that your toddler will be seated at the other end of the plane, that you will not be able to sneak a bottle of water onboard...

We won’t mention Dublin Airport. Yes, we will, just for fun.

Remember many years ago when Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland erupted and thus disrupted flights all over Europe with the ash clouds? Companies like the delightful Paddywagon immediately jumped into the breach, heading out across the continent to bring home stranded passengers.

One woman I will always remember was on radio afterwards, telling how long it took to be brought back across Europe by bus.

“But I didn’t mind,” she said. “They were great. And anything was better than arriving back into Dublin airport!”

Bill Bryson, that wittiest of writers, wrote Notes From A Big Country back in the late 1990s, when he had just moved back with his wife and family to his native America from England where he had spent two decades.

Re-reading this the other night, I was struck by one comment in a chapter on how companies and businesses claiming to be making changes ‘for your convenience’ were in fact doing anything but. In most cases, it caused considerable inconvenience to the customers.

“There is a simple explanation for why this happens,” remarked Bryson. “Most big companies don’t like you very much. Except for hotels, airlines, and Microsoft, which don’t like you at all.”

That was America in 1998.

Can’t we quote examples from this side of the Atlantic too?

For instance, trying to get through to a large company to report overcharging or a fault. We are sure you have a few horror stories of your own. Like waiting hours for a real person to speak to you, being reminded brightly at intervals by a recorded message that you could do all this online, really you could. Except that you are trying to report a fault in the online connection…

Or you do get through about overcharging, get cut off, and when, several hours later, you get back on again, the entirely new person demands to know to whom exactly you spoke last time, and the precise minute and second you did so?

Bryson also mentioned hotels which put big advertising boards on freeways offering bargain prices for families. When you turned up though, they said, oh no, that was just for one or two rooms on special offer, and they weren’t available now.

Well, that has reached Ireland too. You see the sign, turn trustingly in, and then discover that the real charge is about ten times more.

We won’t even mention the leap in prices when some big event is announced. That’s business, that’s commerce, alas.

Back in 1966, when Micheál Kenefick of Whitegate was travelling the roads with gas deliveries, they had an overnight allowance of 17s 6d. Marooned in Schull one night, when no B&B had a vacancy, he was taken pity on by Sean Barnett, who put him up in his hotel (where the prices were probably far higher).

And back then that was what you expected or at least hoped for. Hotels, guesthouses, even private homes would do what they could to help you out. Even if you stopped to ask the way, the chances were you would be invited in for a cup of tea.

Now, alas, you can knock at many a front door of a house and nobody will answer, although you can see from the curtain twitching that there are people inside watching you. What have we become?

It is with airlines that we have surely noticed the biggest change, though.

Cast your mind back, those of you of a certain age, and remember what it was like going up to Cork Airport to catch a flight. You would have been thinking about it for weeks, maybe, planning ahead, selecting the clothes you were going to wear, so that you looked neat and tidy.

Parking at the airport, or even a drop-off, was easy. The staff on the check-in desks smiled in welcome. So did everybody you met en route.

This writer can remember when the airport had at last instituted, reluctantly enough, some form of security checking, and would request travellers to remove forgotten or mislaid sharp metal objects from their pockets (scissors, penknife, screwdriver, whatever).

By now, of course, your luggage would have gone through, so you had nowhere to put these. And so the airport established a little service at one of the shops outside the security zone where you could hurry back, purchase a padded envelope and a stamp, and send the offending object back home, to await your return.

Now wasn’t that considerate? Besides which, it was not unusual to permit a friend or relative to go through the security zone to see off an elderly or nervous traveller. Not now, you can’t!

Now, we do realise that security at airports has changed quite a bit in recent years, and for very good reasons. But why has travelling by air become such an ordeal, something to be dreaded, survived, rather than a treat?

Let’s hear your memories of travel back then, whether it was the bus up from Goleen, the train to Dublin, or your first trip abroad.

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