A local bus driver has retired after 41 years of service. Ernest McVeigh had been the bus driver at Spa Primary School for almost 30 years, so the students and staff at Spa Primary School held a special assembly on Friday morning to say farewell to their beloved bus driver and friend.
During the assembly, Ernest, who resides in the countryside near Dromara with his wife Rose McVeigh, sat in a chair at the front of the sports hall, where many people made kind remarks about him and gave gifts. Rose, who sat next to Ernest during the assembly, received a bouquet of flowers from the children. The couple have one son and two grandchildren.
“Forty-one years he was driving the bus,” Rose said. She said that before coming to Spa Primary School, her husband had driven school buses in the Downpatrick area and “all over.” She said that he started driving a tractor at a young age and has been driving all his life.
“He just loves driving,” she said. Ernest said he was “born and reared at the Moybrick Road” and that now that he is retired, he’ll keep busy with farming.
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