Rural Ireland feeling isolated by cuts to bus routes

“At the heart of the community” is the logo that stands proudly at the top of Bus Éireann’s website but if that’s meant to be a promise it’s one that will sound hollow in some of Ireland’s towns and villages this weekend.

Despite being the only State transport provider for much of rural Ireland, the parts many miles from a railway station and often relying on multiple connections to get to large cities, the bus company is now planning to leave up to 15 stop-off points without a service.

News of the elimination of the Number 7 Dublin-Cork route which currently goes through parts of Kilkenny and south Tipperary; and the scaling-back of the Number 5 route between Dublin and Waterford which serves part of north Wexford, has been greeted by consternation.

A village like Ballyporeen on the Tipperary side of the county’s border with Cork, was largely ignored by the Celtic Tiger and has long forgotten the days of President Ronald Reagan’s visit over three decades ago, and will now be left without its bus link to Cork and Dublin.

It’s in a similar position to nearby Clogheen, hardly the transport hub of Munster, along with places like Ardfinnan; Crettyard in Co Laois, and Castlecomer in Co Kilkenny.

The latter is within 15-20km of the rail station in Kilkenny but that’s not much good to an elderly person who needs to attend a medical appointment in Dublin and has no independent means of transport to get to that train. Or students whose weekends will be cut short as they strive to get back to their urban bases.

In south Tipperary the only rail service travelling through the county's biggest town, Clonmel, links Waterford and Limerick three times a day each way, so anyone venturing to the capital via Clonmel faces a 3½ hour slog just to get to Heuston Station, and that's after changing trains at Limerick Junction.

The Number 7 route has been given a stay of execution while a "working group" within the National Transport Authority examines alternatives but, as things stand, the people in Tipperary, Kilkenny and Laois who have depended for years on the lengthy but direct and reliable bus service will themselves be seeking alternatives from July.

A turnout of about 200 at a meeting in Castlecomer, just hours after the bus cuts became public on Monday, illustrated the depth of feeling surrounding “another attack on rural Ireland”.