‘Bus Nally’ only man permitted to wear white Joe Dolan tie

In every generation, there appears characters who brighten the life of their community, often a touch eccentric, but spirited, fun, good-humoured, good-natured, not at all self-conscious, and very much a one-off.

Just such a man was the late Sean McNally – known more popularly as ‘The Bus Nally;, a nickname bestowed on him in his childhood as he drove an imaginary vehicle around the streets, bumping into people and shouting ‘beep beep’.

Sean, sadly, has passed to his eternal reward, dying peacefully on Tuesday last, December 16, in the care of the staff of the Cluain Lir Care Centre in Mullingar, by whom he was held in high regard.

It is impossible to write of The Bus Nally without describing his admiration for and obsession with the late international singing star Joe Dolan.

In fact, there were only two men in Mullingar who could wear the famous white suit: Dolan himself and his hometown impersonator Sean ‘the Bus’ Nally. And indeed it was often the same suit!

Joe’s long time manager Seamus Casey remembers The Bus as always being around offering to help the Joe Show, whether assisting with stage set-ups locally, or offering to put up posters for concerts.

“He always called Joe ‘King’ and would be asking to help set up the stage in the Greville Arms. He saw himself as an honorary roadie and if he was away, he’d be telling people he was Joe’s stage manager.” he said.

In fact, the way he earned his living was a bill poster around town, putting up posters for bands, meetings, and politicians, but he also described himself as an “entertainer” – and entertain he certainly did.

Joe played a part in making The Bus a Joe Dolan impersonator, or tribute act, as he would be called today. Seamus revealed that Joe would happily hand down his used suits to The Bus. The Bus was also one of the very few allowed to sport a white Joe Dolan tie, which he’d wear come rain or shine, at home or wherever his rambles took him.

“He was a great character, a harmless divil really,” Seamus recalls.

The Bus would often turn up at local hotels, especially when a wedding reception would be on, resplendent in his white suit. He would then join in with a wedding band he knew to sing a Joe medley - and get the dinner!

The Bus’s fame went beyond Mullingar. In 1991, he appeared on the RTÉ television programme ‘Nighthawks’, where he sang a couple of Joe Dolan numbers, and found himself selected to compete in the Culchie of the Year competition, held in Clonbur, County Galway. He was thrilled when he came second, and declared he was proud – and not embarrassed – to be described as a culchie.

“It’s not an insult. Why should it be an insult? Culchie means you are just out for the crack. I don’t see any difference between culchies and jackeens,” he told the Westmeath Examiner at the time.

For the Culchie finals, he sang his two favourite Joe Dolan numbers, ‘It’s You, it’s You, it’s You’ and ‘More and More and More’.

“And,” he recalled, “the crowd screamed the place out of it. I nearly had it won, only for your man came up and he did Ackerbilk with his nose, and got it,” he said.

Thanks to the impact he had made, he went on to appear later that year on Pat Kenny’s ‘Kenny Live’. That was no great cause of stress for a man who had already appeared on the Terry Wogan show on the BBC with his band ‘The Bogmen’ and who had also featured on ‘Kelly’s People’ on Ulster TV (UTV).

Sean never got married, declaring to the Westmeath Examiner that he was waiting until he found “a superstar”, and joking that he had an eye for Biddy from Glenroe.

The Bus will be fondly remembered by all who knew him or who encountered him.

His funeral Mass took place on Thursday December 18 at St Mary’s Chapel, Cluain Lir Care Centre, and his remains were later interred at Ballyglass Cemetery.