Irish Buses in the Mid 1960's

In mid 1960s English bus enthusiast Richard Newman made a number of visits to Ireland and captured the then prevailing bus scene on film. Richard delves into his archive to present a selection of vehicles from CIE, the Lough Swilly, Belfast Corporation, the UTA and Ulsterbus, as well as a variety of independent coach operators in Eire.

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These days, an interest in buses - recording and photographing them - is not particularly unusual, as the numbers attending vehicle rallies will confirm. However, forty or more years ago it was regarded with more than a degree of suspicion, both by passengers and bus company employees. Bus photography was much less common than railway photography. The author started bus photography with a box camera giving only eight frames on a roll of film, so economy was vital, with perhaps only one view at each location visited. In 1964 he acquired an Ilford Sportsman 35mm camera so, with 36 frames now available on each film, he had the opportunity to record the Irish bus scene comprehensively on a visit from England in 1965. He returned in 1967 for a more extensive Irish tour and again for an extended day trip in 1968 to record the closure of the Belfast trolleybus system. This album is the result of those excursions; most of the buses have long since been scrapped and many of the background buildings redeveloped. It is hoped that this book will evoke nostalgia for past transport in a very different Ireland.