From Donegal to Glasgow - the bus that keeps hope alive

Now, a new BBC documentary reveals how this chord was able to stretch from the west coast of Ireland to the west coast of Scotland.

The heartfelt, poignant, story of the Irish immigrants is told in The Glasgow Bus.

The story of Bus Ghlaschu is told by the colourful characters who sat in the seats of what was then a tiny little bus.

Each week the series follows bus passengers, including Donegal-born footballer Packie Bonner and Lorraine McIntosh of Deacon Blue fame, whose mum came from Donegal.

The story begins however in the early sixties when Donegal was ravaged by poverty and young people were sent to Glasgow to work.

Maire Rua, who would go onto to become a well-known Glasgow bus conductress, recalls waking up as a 15 year-old, not long out of school, and being packed onto the bus.

“When I was told I was going to work in Glasgow, I felt my heart rise up through my chest with sadness,” she recalls of the time.

Maire didn’t want to leave her family behind to work for six months in tattie howking in the fields of Ayrshire. She was a very frightened young girl.

“You always knew you would go,” she says, of the time of despatch. “You had to go and find work to support your family.

“But for a quarter of a mile after I left the house I could hear my mother crying.”

Maire, whose love for her homeland is highlighted by her green nail polish, lived in filthy bothies on farms around the west coast.

Maire and the other young Irish workers were given two army blankets, “one for underneath and one on top.”

There were no sheets. Rats walked over them during the night.

“You had to pull the blanket over your head to stop the rats getting to you,” she recalls of the life they endure for just two pounds and fourteen shillings a week.

“We would arrive in Scotland in June and stay until November.

“During that time you become sad and you’d think you were going to die.”

The first year was the worst for Maire who was well aware the young Irish field workers were little more than slaves.

But she became used to her new world and decided to stay in Glasgow, living in the city until her mother’s illness years later took her back to Donegal.

“I love Glasgow and I love Celtic,” she says, smiling. “But I’m too old to live here now.”

The Glasgow Bus became a link for those who returned from Scotland to see their relatives in Donegal, such as Deacon Blue star Lorraine McIntosh’s mum.

“My mum loved getting on the bus,” says the singer/actress.

“When she got on the little Gaelic mini-bus, as it was then, it was wonderful for her.

“It was always crammed. We’d be squashed, but it was taste of home for her. She would know people and they were all speaking Irish and my mum was so happy she was going home.”

Lorraine adds; “Then coming back to Glasgow after two weeks was really sad for her, leaving family behind.”

Lorraine visit’s her mum’s childhood home (she was one of ten children), and it’s hugely emotional for the singer who lost her mum when she was only eleven.

But it also reveals the level of poverty the Irish had to leave behind.

“The place she came from is a direct route to her,” says Lorraine. “That’s why I come here so much.”

The Glasgow Bus however did more than transport migrant workers.

Coffin carriage was common, as workers died in Scotland. Indeed, the documentary reminds of the ten young Irish boys who died in a fire in on a farm in Kirkintilloch.

The bus would often carry beds, wardrobes, carpets, armchairs, televisions, bicycles and even a tombstone.

The bus was also travelling romance centre. A lot of couples first met on the bus and went on to marry.

But of course, there was the odd disruptive element, such as the passenger who as disrespectful to the nun. This was dealt with effectively when one of the drivers gave the man a little punch on the chin.

And the bus had to contend with changing politics over the years. There were IRA hijackings, the jackbooted approach of British soldiers.

One bus user of the time recalls of 1969 and soldiers taking suitcases off, stripping them, and leaving them on the roadside. “Old, frightened ladies on the bus took out there rosary beads,” he says.

But the bus was about connection between the cities, transporting whatever had to be moved. At one point, seats were removed and three Shetland ponies became passengers.

Young football hopefuls were also included. Celtic goalkeeper Pat Bonner travelled on the bus in 1977, for a trial with Celtic.

“There was no other way to get from Donegal to Glasgow. There was no Donegal airport at the time,” he says, smiling.

Comedian Des Clarke also applauds those who had the foresight to set the Glasgow Bus on the road.

“Any Glasgow kid who had family in Donegal knew that when you went on holiday it was not to Tenerife or Majorca,” he says, smiling.

“It was on the bus, from the Gorbals where it picked you up, to Donegal.”

• Bus Ghlaschu, BBC Alba, Mondays at 8.30pm.