Taoiseach recalls his family’s Cork CIE links with great fondness

This evening, the Lord Mayor of Cork, Green Party councillor Dan Boyle, will host a civic reception in City Hall to mark the 80th anniversary of Córas Iompair Éireann (CIÉ) in Cork.

Taoiseach Micheál Martin spoke to The Echo about his childhood as the son of a Cork bus driver, Paddy ‘Champ’ Martin.

“Our family is a CIÉ family, my father was a bus driver, so Capwell bus station was iconic for us as children, the mother would often go down and meet the father there, maybe for the wages or whatever, that and the statue on Patrick St, because when we’d be in shopping with the mother, the father could be in at the statue and she’d go over to meet him,” Mr Martin said.

“To us, our entire childhood was about Bus Éireann, so when the mother mightn’t have been too well, myself and my twin brother would be babysat at the back of the Number 4 bus after school, reading a book, and there used to be a bus conductor there would give us a bar of chocolate, and that was my father’s way of babysitting us at the time.” 

CIÉ is a statutory corporation founded in 1945 and it is responsible for most public transport in Ireland. Since 1986 it has been the holding company for Bus Éireann, Dublin Bus and Iarnród Éireann.

Paddy ‘Champ’ Martin, who earned his nickname as a gifted amateur boxer who represented Ireland 13 times, mainly drove the Number 3 bus, which went from Ballyphehane to Farranree, his son recalled.

“We used to do stupid things. I always , as children we used to be intrigued, the bus men had perfected a way of jumping off a moving bus, just as it was coming to a stop, if they were letting off a bus driver or a fella who had come to the end of his shift.

“In those times there was a pole and you’d hop on and hop off the bus. There were all these mannerisms you were watching, and they’d make a run as they jumped off and they wouldn’t fall. So I tried it once or twice. I did fall. I don’t recommend that to any young person.” 

Mr Martin recalled another occasion, perhaps when his sister was born, when he and his brother ended up on a tour drive through North Cork, hearing his father give a speech relating the local folklore to the tourists.

Paddy Martin helped found the CIÉ Social Welfare Club, and every Christmas, would make a contribution to widows and orphans.

“I always five or six bus people coming into the house and putting money into envelopes for different families,” the Taoiseach said.

“You get a sense of a very strong community in CIÉ. There was great camaraderie, great fellowship, and in Turner’s Cross, where we lived, there was bus men and bus conductors on every second road, along with people who worked in the mental hospital, who worked in Dunlop’s, who worked in Ford’s, that was the kind of community it was.” 

Mr Martin said he was currently reading broadcaster John Creedon’s book, This Boy’s Heart.

“There’s a wonderful piece in that where his father, Connie Pa, who was a bus driver who worked with my father, predicts that John Buckley will be bishop of Cork and Ross, Michael Mortell will become president of UCC, and his third prediction, when he met me as lord mayor, he said to my father, ‘Paddy, that fella will be taoiseach yet’.

“So, as John said, if you’d put money on his three predictions, you’d have made some amount of money.” Mr Martin said Connie Pa Creedon was “a storyteller par excellence”, a skill he had ed to his children, and he recalled visiting Shanghai as a minister and attending the premiere of Cónal Creedon’s play, Second City Trilogy.

“I said ‘If our fathers could see us, out in China’. I have great time for Cónal’s writing, he captures the best tradition of Cork short story writing, and novels as well, but I just love his short stories in particular.” 

Mr Martin said he wished CIÉ the very best on its anniversary, and he thanked the train and bus drivers and all who worked there.

“It has been immense, we’ve had some great moments and celebrations, Cork hurling and football teams coming back from All-Irelands in success, and Kent Station was always part of those memories of Cork sporting greatness.

“We thank them all,” he said.