School Bus Driver’s Emotional Farewell to Limerick Pupils
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Josephine McDonnell Retires After 47 Years as a bus Driver
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A Lifetime on the Road
WHEN Josephine McDonnell climbed into the bus driver’s seat for the final time it marked the end of her time as a school bus driver for Ballyagran NS following five years of service and after almost half a century as a full-time driver.
The Bruree resident has spent 47 years behind the wheel of buses in Ireland and abroad, most recently ferrying children to Ballyagran NS. But at 70, the Moyvane, Co Kerry native is being forced to retire by Bus Éireann regulations, something she admits she’s finding “absolutely impractical” to accept.
“I spent the last three weeks crying over this,” she said. “The last few days, all I’m getting is presents every day… We’re like a big family.”
From Farm to Freeway: The Beginning of a Career
Josephine’s career began in the late 1970s, at a time when few women were seen driving buses. After helping on the family farm and caring for her father when he became ill, she turned to bus driving to make a living.
Josephine explained: “I’d to stay at home and help on the farm and my father got sick eventually and I wasn’t let go to school. When my dad got sick, I went driving a school bus locally… Six months later, I got an offer of a job to start driving to London. I married into buses and out of buses.”
Experiences on the road: London and Beyond
Josephine has seen it all in her career, bombings in London, bus stowaways and near thefts.”I was in London the day that Charles and Diana got married and London was electric.”
She continued: “I was coming back through Pembroke and the staff were all drunk, the customs crowd, and somebody had left a bottle of whiskey on the bus and two customs officers came onto the bus and they accused me of smuggling a bottle of whiskey.”
In London, she drove for Slattery’s of Tralee, and later worked across Ireland with various operators. For