Off The Field
But all the success of the 50’s was not on the field. Under the guidance of Chairmen like Tommy Steele - (Hall of Fame) and Hugh McKelvey, the Club not only increased its playing activities but also expanded in other directions. Castlewellan was never a hurling stronghold, back then, but they did have very successful juvenile teams, while some of its members such as Paddy McAleenan - (Hall of Fame) and Paddy O’Donaqhue - (Hall of Fame) played for Leitrim winning 5 Junior championship medals with that club. Both these men also played hurling for Down Minors and the Down Junior team.. A camogie team was also formed in the club at the time. In 1953, under the direction of "Maltic" McCabe, the Club formed an amateur dramatic society, which provided not only a good club activity, but also brought a smile to the Treasurer’s face.
Town Bus: At the annual meeting in 1954, the Club’s financial position was the cause of some concern. The main financial burden was incurred in bus hire, and Club Chairman Hugh McKelvey suggested that the Club acquire its own bus. This was a novel idea, as public transport was a State monopoly, and the legality of owning a bus was in doubt. However, Hugh McKelvey with his usual dedication persisted, and eventually received authority to proceed. He went to Kent, and returned, not with a bus but with a photograph of the bus he had purchased for £100 – a Denis gate-change coach with a slide back roof the entire length of the passenger cabin. A week later "Eva" so called because of the registration number, arrived in style. The town turned out to see the phenomenon and the late Canon Duff ceremoniously blessed it. Membership cards for the bus at half-a-crown each were issued, and the Club was in business with the first GAA bus in Ireland.
A 1954 edition of the Dublin based Sunday Press ran an article on this historical event a year later-.
“On an October evening last year a bus drove into the square at Castlewellan causing the greatest commotion this little Co Down town had known for years. It was given a royal welcome and when it took up its position in the square it was on view to many admiring eyes. This was no ordinary bus, a new one just purchased by St Malachy’s Gaelic Club being welcomed home. After the inspection, testing the seats and listening to the engine it was generally agreed that the Club had made a good bargain, and it has created history among the ranks of the association by being the first Club to own a bus.
It was a bold stroke and the honour must go to one man – Hugh McKelvey – chairman. The Club talked for over a year for and against the proposal but Hugh was always for it.
At last he gained his point and was given permission, when the Club committee realised that if they were going to exist something would have to be done, for over £300 had been spent on transport the previous year.
Hugh’s next move was to find out where a bus could be bought. Over in Newcastle (England) he met a “showman” who put him ion the lines, and advised him to buy a trade journal. He did and found that one could be bought in Kent. Soon after, Hugh had to go to England on business, and combined his own business along with the Club’s. He went down to Kent saw the bus, heard it running and purchased it for £100. Arriving back in Castlewellan all he could show for the money was a photograph, but soon afterwards the bus arrived in town costing £37 and 10 shillings (half a pound). For transport so that the total price was £137 and 10 shillings”
It wasn’t long until the bus was in use to carry the team all over the province. Now it has saved the Club a lot of money. It is looked after by club member Jimmy McEvoy who always has it in tip top order and ‘pilots’ it on all journeys (after this article appeared Jimmy was for ever and a day known as ‘Pilot’). The clu’s biggest headache then was to find a garage but after some trouble Gerald Annsley came to the rescue and give him one on his estate When I was in Castlewellana few evenings ago the bus had been brought to town for a general overhaul and to have it painted in the Club colours of green and white.
The big green coach was a familiar sight on the highways and by-ways of Down for almost a decade (1954 – 1961) ferrying players and supporters to all away games and much more besides. It was the envy of every Club the length and breadth of the country as it pulled up along narrow country roads with it’s cargo of town folk, arriving in style and proudly disembarking to commence battle on the playing fields across the County. Regular supporters quickly claimed their seats on the coach and lo betide any person that would have sat on Willie and Josie Jennings’s seat perched directly behind the drivers cab! Willie could bark instructions to the driver much to the annoyance of the newly recruited Club drivers some of whom had never been behind the wheel of a bus in their lives. No HGV or even driver licences required back then. Heaven help anybody that dared take the front seat claimed by Willie and Josie. A young ‘butcher’ Burns tempted fate once during his juvenile years when he dived into the front seat before Willie. The bus fell silent as Willie ordered the cheeky teenager to vacate his seat and when the bold butcher replied something along the lines of ‘please go away Willie’ or the shorter version ending in “off” trembling passengers could only look on in anticipation before Willie landed a right hook into butcher’s left eye. The current Club Secretary who accompanied butcher on that fateful voyage and who was seated next to him wasted no time in scampering down to the back of the bus almost breaking the back of the seat in his haste to escape but butcher wasn’t for turning and remained in Willie’s seat for the entire journey despite his black eye and swollen lip.
Trips to Knock and other parochial outings were now possible with a coach at the disposal of the parish and perhaps it’s most memorable outing was to the 1960 All-Ireland final in Dublin when Down captured the Sam Maquire for the first time and GAA History was made as it was also the first time that Sam came north of the border. Seats for the final on-board Eva were as hard to come by as seats in Croke Park for that historic outing with as many more standing in the aisle for the long trip south on that glorious day. Indeed the old coach provides many a humorous story of some of the town characters of the day and their antics on-board Eva, men like Mickey Sawey of the Cosy Café in Lower Square, Seamus McKevitt of Annsborough, Ned McCann of McCann’s bar in Main Street, Charlie Keown of Upper Square, and there were many more characters that would provide on-board entertainment on the succession of town buses that would serve the town so well over the next thirty years. Eva had another important use as it sat parked at it’s familiar location beside the Church railings next to the parochial hall (now the Corncrane Centre) at lower square. The town club had no premises of their own until the seventies so the committee came up with the novel idea of holding their weekly meetings on-board their only piece of club property – the town bus. It was about this time, too, that the first GAA week was run in partnership with the Parish. When the accounts were finally settled the sum of £295 had been raised, and Cannon Duff arrived at the next football committee meeting held on-board Eva with the Club’s share – £145 which left the Club in better standing with its Bank manager. By 1961 old Eva’s days were numbered but she had proved her usefulness so much so that every other GAA Club throughout the land was by now considering following in the town club’s footsteps and by the late sixties early seventies it was a common sight to see old UTA or imported coaches of varying vintages trundling their way to matches often leaving a black cloud of smoke in their wake. Annsborough, Kilcoo, Bryansford, Clanvaraghan, Ballykinlar, Kilkeel, were just some of the club’s to put buses on the road in County Down, but not all of them enjoyed the same commercial success as Castlewellan and most if not all of them were off the road again years before the town club sold its last bus. The Committee behind the historic purchase of the first town bus were Chairman Hugh McKelvey, Secretary, Dan Rooney, Assistant Secretary Cyril Wells, Vice-Chairman, and Tommy Steele, Treasurer P. F. McCabe and Committee Seamus Fitzpatrick, Pat Rodgers, Paddy O’Donahue, Dan McCartan, Agnes Rooney, Pat McGreevey, Barney Corrigan, John McGreevy and Tom Ward.
The next bus purchased by the town club was a red and white AEC about 1962. It was quickly painted the town colours of green and white. Spraying professionally in some coach works was unheard of and sure hadn’t we our own painters and decorators that could do the job just as well. ‘Pilot’ McEvoy and a few others with their broad paintbrushes did a grand job and no one was too fussy then about the brush marks that would be visible after the job was complete. This bus was parked in McAleenan’s yard beside the meadow and perhaps its most famous outing was on a Club organised holiday to Kilarney, which was a million miles away. Old and young snapped up the places available and headed off on the long journey south with the usual entertainers on-board to provide the sing along and the craic. By 1968 another replacement was required and this time a Petrol Bedford ex-RAF bus (airforce blue) was purchased, bought from a scout troop in Newtownards. It was a no nonsense practical bus built for ferrying troops and devoid of any creature comforts such as the high seat backs of the previous coaches, but it too served it’s purpose up until about 1973 when it was time to change again.
This time the Club purchased a Bedford Coach and as we were in the more fashionable 1970’s it was felt that this time we should get a professional paint job done and the new coach was brought to Norman Kelly’s new coachworks near Maghera to have the town colours applied as well as the Club Crest. This bus was parked in John O’Hare’s Yard at Burrenbridge, which was a convenient spot as at least 3 of the drivers lived in the Dublin Road then – Pat, Johnny, and Frankie Rooney. A number of other buses followed over the next decade, which would all bear the town colours a Leyland Leopard was next in line, purchased for the Club by Jim Flanagan (the ‘Big Cog’) a well known and much loved character whose exploits were legendry. Jim who hailed from Annsborough was in his time a cattle dealer, bus driver, local entrepreneur, wheelerdealer/salesman, who would chance his hand at anything and conducted much of his business from Maginn’s Bar at the top of the town. The club treasurer then was Frankie Rooney who was barman in Maginn’s and so an alliance was struck. Jim delivered the bus all right but the jury is still out on whether the deal was more to the Cog’s benefit than the Club’s. Suffice to say that the next bus followed a short time later. This one was a beauty, modern and sleek portraying the forward looking vision of the Club Committee who had now purchased the bus garage on the Circular Road (which was later to become the Social Club). The bus had curtains, speakers and internal 8-track stereo and a PA system. The big cumbersome 8-track stereo provided on-board entertainment to members on their journeys to games and at every Club outing or bus trip a rebel tape would be passed to the driver to play at full volume.
At last the bus could also be housed in it’s own garage and this became useful for carrying out repairs and maintenance. Willie McIlrath from St Malachy’s Crescent carried out much of the maintenance. Willie was a fitter with UTA (later to become Ulsterbus/Translink). He was a top class bus mechanic and provided a great service to the Club for many years. Another mechanic who was very knowledgeable about buses came from the Blue Row. He was another ‘Maginn’s’ customer recruited by Frankie Rooney to carry out work on the bus. Frankie recalls that on one occasion he received a distress call from Knock in County Mayo where the bus had broken down on yet another pilgrimage. Frankie called to his house at Blue Row and quickly explained the problem telling him to grab his coat and tools as they had to head to Knock to rescue the stranded pilgrims in the town bus. Without a second thought he was in the car alongside Frankie before it occurred to him to enquire where Knock was? Not being of the Catholic persuasion he never heard of such a place where Catholics descended in their thousands, and Frankie didn’t make him any the wiser simply telling him that ‘it was just out the road’. Little did he realise that it was close on 300 miles out the road and it was only a couple of hours later when he read on a signpost ‘Knock 180 miles’ that he realised that he had been conned. Nevertheless the journey to knock was completed and after a few hours of work the bus was up and running once again and on it’s homeward journey much to the relief of the weary pilgrims.
By now the town bus was in huge demand right across the County providing transport requirements for a whole range of outings including many school and scout trips ferrying people the length and breadth of the Country. It was used by at least one local school during the infamous Ulster Loyalist Strike of 1974 when all public transport was brought to a halt for a number of weeks. The bus was also used for a number of controversial outings in the late seventies ferrying republicans to Bodenstown for the annual Wolfe Tone
Commemoration. The heavy usage of the bus resulted in many hefty repair bills but it also brought much needed revenue into the Club and was for many years the Club’s only source of income. As the seventies give way to the eighties and the decade progressed, the Committee reluctantly game to the opinion that sustaining a Club Coach was becoming increasingly difficult as new regulations in public transport demanded more stringent requirements and insurance was difficult to get and also highly expensive. Team transport was no longer an issue as increasing affluence meant that many players and supporters had their own cars, which they preferred to use to get to matches. So the end of an era finally arrived in the mid-eighties after 30 years of the town-bus and this period in the Club’s history cannot be over estimated in terms of its importance in the evolution of the Club. The bus provided the venue for players and supporters to have a bit of banter and fun on journeys to and from matches as well as the many social outings arranged by the Club. It was after all the age before the advent of the social club. All sorts of antics would occur on the bus from water pistol fights to actual punch-ups over some post match disagreement. There was the usual sing a longs on long outings as well as the many characters that would keep passengers amused or come in for a bit of banter There was the breakdowns a not uncommon occurrence from ageing buses and there was the pit stops were it would sometimes prove impossible to get some inebriated member back on-board. Anything could happen and often something would. John O’Higgins once stopped the bus, pulled on the handbrake, and told a young Frankie Rooney to take over the wheel himself after he delivered a message from the back of the bus that one passenger thought he was driving too fast. The bus set driverless for half an hour before Pat Rooney was persuaded to take the wheel and complete the journey. It was not unusual either for some irate member to stop the bus and disembark over some disagreement among his mentors. Seamus McKevitt was once knocked unconscious on board ‘Eva’ in the late fifties as he was standing on top of a seat-back waving a large Castlewellan flag through the open top of the bus which came in contact with a sturdy branch along the road knocking McKevitt onto the broad of his back. The bus would also double as changing room on away games, and after the match supporters would have to wait until the players had changed again before alighting onto the bus for the homeward journey. No one seemed to mind the smell of sweat from unwashed players or the thick smell of wintergreen that filled the bus on journeys home. Just as the importance of the bus in the life of Club and community cannot be overestimated so too were the men that drove the buses over that same period. Men like John O’Higgins; the Rooney bros, Pat Johnny and Frankie; Pat Keown; Jim (Darkie) Toner; Teddy Hardy; Walter Simons; Brian King; PJ McAlinden;
Both PJ (Goose), and Brian were barred from driving Club bus’s for short periods. When talking the bus out from the Circular road garage one sunny Sunday afternoon to take the junior team off to a game the inexperienced ‘Goose’ ripped the side out of the seventies pride and joy when he drove it too close to Sarah Toner’s gate pillar when emerging from the garage onto the Circular Road, leaving an irate Sarah Jane’s pillar demolished. Brian on the other hand was taken off the driver’s list for some unexplained misdemeanour and was informed by the Club Chairman that he was a ‘rum driver’ much to the merriment of his Club colleagues.
All of this was taken in good spirit and although towards the end the bus had its share of controversies it will always hold a special place in the hearts of townsfolk that can recall it’s glory days particularly for anyone that can recall that day in 1954 when the first bus arrived in town. It was the first milestone in the history of the Club. Although we have journeyed many a long mile since then, we can look back on this period with pride and recall that it was unheard of for a GAA Club to own a team bus at a time when many English professional soccer Clubs did not have their own transport. The Club made headlines in all the papers for the right reasons and thankfully it was not to be the last.
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