Meet the woman whose culture bus has kept Dunlavin's elderly connected for 40 years

FOR nearly 40 years, Margaret Lynott’s culture bus has been carrying Dunlavin people up and down the country to events, shows and museums.

The concept is simple: Margaret, otherwise known as Mags, organises a place to go every few months, books the tickets, hires a bus driver and tells a WhatsApp group of regular culture lovers what they will be getting up to.

“We pick places that people wouldn’t drive to ... things that people wouldn’t do on their own,” said Mags. “A lot of our group now has gotten bad on their pins. They don’t want to go anywhere.” 

Until May 2024, when the Local Link bus was introduced, there was no public transport in Dunlavin, a town in the north-west of Wicklow on the Kildare border.

“The bus has really filled a void for people,” explained Mags. “People are very isolated. There are people now who haven’t come out since Covid. You wouldn’t believe how isolated people are, and they’ve lost friends through Covid and I know they’re afraid.” 

According to the 2022 census, there are 189,574 adults over-65 years old living alone around the country, a trend more pronounced in rural areas. A report into older adults’ engagement with cultural activities by Trinity College, Dublin in 2023 found that older adults who got involved in arts, creative and cultural activities experienced a better quality of life and lower levels of stress and worry.

However, 24% of people living in rural areas said a lack of availability of artistic or cultural activities in their area was a barrier to their participation. In Dublin, this figure was 5% and in towns and cities, the figure was 12%.

“Going around with the Meals on Wheels, I see the isolation,” Mags explained.

She co-ordinates the production of 50 meals for Dunlavin residents every week. “I’ve found two people unconscious in their houses. We’re probably the only ones that see them during the week.

“One guy, I couldn’t find him one day last year. Normally, he would have a little box outside if he was gone for an appointment, but there was no box and no nothing. I went around the house; he was living in very poor circumstances. I couldn’t find him.

“His sister lived beside another house I was going to and I called into her. They went up and they found him out the back on the ground with a piece of his ear bitten off. Obviously, he been there for a while. He died a week after.” 

The bus is a welcome distraction to isolation. 

“We have one couple who met on the bus at some show and others have met up for lunch and coffee,” said Mags. “I tell them to tell their friends, and now we have started to get a few more.” 

On a trip to the Shackleton exhibition in Athy, she was surprised by four new people joining from Donard, a village four miles from Dunlavin. “They were there 43 years and I had never met them. They were delighted to come.” 

 And the bus has offered a chance to see what Ireland has to offer: “It’s amazing the amount of people that knew of nowhere in Ireland until Covid because before they went to Spain and Lanzarote.” 

The group has had many a “fabulous day out” in places like Mount Congreve in Waterford, Airfield House and Altamont Gardens, going to shows at the Gate Theatre, the Bord Gáis and the Olympia theatres and touring the Mansion House in Dublin, Glasnevin Cemetery and Collins Barracks. Many places they visit are free to enter, such as the Chester Beatty Gallery, Dublin Castle and the National Library.

Mags lights up when she talks about their trips to the dogs and horse racing. “That’s a whole different bunch of people because it’s an afternoon meeting in August and we go down, we get a bite to eat, we back a few horses, stop off somewhere and we’ll go for a drink. It’s great craic.

“We used to always do a day in Dublin shopping, say, around 10 or 12 December, but we just found that this year Dublin was too busy and there was too much going on. So we went to Kilkenny instead. We had an amazing day down there.” 

They also had a big trip to the Dáil in June. “Edward Timmons invited us – he’s our local Fine Gael TD.” 

For every trip, Mags hires Hollywood native Billy Lenehan or ‘Billy the Bus’ as he’s listed in her contact book. She first hired him for a trip to the Titanic museum in Belfast when her daughter, now a theatre programme manager at Visual, was five years old.

“Billy will drop us and in we go and he goes off and he turns up the minute the show is over. He lets us stop at the Applegreen, people go to the loo, get a few bits and we stop there coming back.”

Depending on numbers, they take a 36- or 16-seater bus for the “mix of people” that show up.

Mags, a Dunlavin native, originally trained as a psychiatric nurse. She turned 70 years old last November and a surprise party was attended by family and friends from all over. Now a widow, she organises dinners to Rathsallagh House for “all the eligible women in Dunlavin”, as they have been called, and monthly brunches called ‘Friday Fogies’ for anyone who wants a bit of company.

She is nonchalant about the future of the culture bus: “Ah, someone will pick it up” and doesn’t exaggerate the impact of her work: “It’s nice to see people getting out and happy.”