From meeting his wife on a ‘bus blind date’ to hijackings during the Troubles — a century of family service to public transport will come to an end on Monday when veteran bus driver Noel Christy retires after 50 years.
What began as a summer job for a 17-year-old from Strabane gradually became a career spanning five decades, taking Noel through some of the most difficult years of the Troubles and providing some of the happiest moments of his life.
His retirement will also bring to a close a combined 100 years of service between Noel and his father, who joined the organisation when it was still the Ulster Transport Authority.
For Noel, reaching the 50-year milestone was something he had set his mind on long before retirement finally arrived.
“My dad did 50 years and I could’ve been away a couple of years ago,” he said.
“But I said no, I’m going to do the 50. Just something in my head I had to do. If you’re listening up there, da, I’m beating you by four days… he’ll be laughing at that!”
Noel’s career began when his father came home one day and told him there was a summer job available.
He started at the Pennyburn depot aged 17, cleaning, fuelling and washing buses before eventually getting the chance to move behind the wheel.
By the age of 21, his father had told him he was old enough to undergo driver training, and Noel seized the opportunity.
His father was also not shy about making sure his son was available when the depot needed him.
“If a driver was off sick, and it was my day off, my dad would call and say: ‘Right Noel, you’ve to come down here and work,’” he recalled.
“But we got to spend time with each other.
“When he retired, I said he was an old man, but 60s is the new 40s now as far as I’m concerned. You have to think like that.”
Noel’s father, John Joe Christy, a bus driver with Ulster Transport Authority and Ulster Bus, who also completed 50 years © Noel Christy
While the job provided a lifetime of friendships and memories, it also placed Noel on the front line during some of the most dangerous years of the Troubles.
Buses were regularly subjected to disruption, attacks and hijackings, with drivers often finding themselves in frightening situations simply while carrying out their work.
Noel vividly remembers his first hijacking and the impact it had on his family.
The incident was so frightening that his mother told him he would not be going back to work. But Noel was determined to continue.
Over time, he said, confronting those situations became something drivers learned to deal with, however extraordinary they may appear today.
“I got that used to it,” he said. “I would tell them you have no cause to stand beside me pointing a gun at my side. Just tell me where to go and I drove.
“I calmed them down, and I calmed myself down. It was just a part of life.”
Above all else, his career on the buses also led to one of the most important relationships of his life.
It was through work that Noel would meet his future wife, Donna — although, as he tells it, their romance started with what he describes as a bus “blind date”.
“I met my wife — Donna — I would say it was a blind date on the bus,” he explained.
“She got my bus a few times, but I didn’t notice her at the time. I should’ve noticed her because she is a beautiful woman.
“A guy working with me used to say, ‘there is a girl from Creggan there, she’s wild about you’.
“I said, ‘dead on, get me her phone number and I’ll believe you.’
A few days later, his colleague returned with a piece of paper carrying Donna’s number.
The Mayor of Derry City & Strabane District Council, Cllr Grace Uí Níallais, and Translink representatives were attending a special ceremony honouring Noel Christy
After the note fell out of his pocket, Noel gathered up some 10p coins, found a phone and decided to take the chance.
“I rang her, and we started talking,” he said “Within two days, I was coming down to lift her for a blind date.
“Maybe seven months later we were engaged and within a year and a half we were married. We had four children and are married 42 years.
“I don’t know where those years went to, but that is where we met — on a blind date on the buses.”
Now, after 50 years, Noel is preparing for his own final journey with Translink.
He still remembers his father’s retirement and the pair walking home arm-in-arm after what he describes as “a good wee night out”.
“There will be a few tears, I’m sure, but you just have to move on with life,” he said.
Retirement will bring more time for golf, family and, after half a century of early starts and bus routes, a chance to set his own pace.
“My dad loved his golf, and I’m going back to it,” Noel said.
“When I retire, I’m going to be a dry-weather man. If the sun is shining, I’ll go out.
“But I’ll spend time with Donna too, and I have plenty of time to do that now.”