The custom of naming 'buses may enable passengers to distinguish their own especial favourites, but it must cause the owners some perturbation in the effort to discover suitable names that have not been used before. In the early days of the traffic owners were content to accept such names as "Pioneer" or "Pirate," and they were rapidly followed by "The Blue Lion," "The Red Line", "The While Line," "The Silver Line," and many others of a similar kind. Then we had the roses, red and white: with such names as "Silver Queen," "The General" and "The Major."
More recently there has been a run on the calendar of saints for 'bus names, so that "St. Christopher," "St. Joan," "St. Jude," and many other saints are now honoured by having their names inscribed on the sides of 'buses. Such names as "Stella Maris," "Loyola" and "Saint Therese" are a further indication of the religious tendency in 'bus names.
A much more useful indication than these names would be some system of lighting the destination signs at night. As things are at present a 'bus will probably have dashed past before one is certain of its destination.
The Irish Times, January 30th, 1931.