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This was the official logo for “Dublin 1991 - European City of Culture”.  The European City of Culture concept was thought up between former Greek & French culture ministers, Mrs Mercouri and Mr Lang while waiting together for a flight from Athens airport in January 1985. The  European City of Culture was formally launched on 13/06/85 in order to contribute to bringing the people of Europe together. 1985 was the first year of European City of Culture, Athens was chosen.  Dublin was chosen for 1991 and  Madrid in 1992,  Cork was 2005 and currently 2008 it is Liverpool and  Stavanger.
In April 1991, D 378 (88-D-988) was painted into “Dublin 1991 – European City of Culture” All Over Advertisement (AOA), incorporating the logo. See pictures 12 and 57 below.

January 1991 - Clontarf’s brand new RH 63 (91-D-1063) photographed in Marlborough Street having operated the route 32B from Abbey Park, Baldoyle. Clontarf’s first RH batch comprised 14 buses,
RH 51 – RH 64 (90-D-1051 to 91-D-1064).  RH 60 was the first RH with a 91-D registration and thus the new Euro style front number plate with Euro flag on left side and “Balie Atha Cliath” across the top.

This 2nd February 1991 photograph shows Conyngham Road’s brand new RH 65 & RH 66 (91-D-1065/6).
Destination/route number scrolls, ticket machines/validators had not yet been fitted and the Hella spotlamp covers were still in situ.
Conyngham Road received 19 RHs in this 1991 batch, RH 65 (91-D-1065 to 91-D-1083). RH 81 and 82 were delivered in white wedding livery complete with wheel trims.

Donnybrook’s KD 355 (GSI 355) was painted into an “Easons Bookstore”, AOA and was photographed appropriately outside Easons on O’Connell Street, Dublin in March 1991.

Conyngham Roads RH 73 (91-D-1073) on the route 66 to Maynooth passes by RH 66 (91-D-1066) appropriately on the route 66A to River Forest, Leixlip. Notice the headlamp surrounds as fitted to RH 66 have been simplified to a one piece moulding as shown on RH 73. This bodywork revision was first seen on Conyngham Road’s RH 69 and became the norm for all new factory delivery RHs from RH 69 up to RH 175.

Phibsboro’s KD 339 (GSI 339) photographed on O’Connell Street, March 1991 in newly applied “Stanley Tools”, AOA operating the route 10 southbound to Belfield.  KD 339 attended the Belfast, ITT Bus Rally in April 1991 in the company of D 376 and brand new yet to be delivered to Donnybrook RH88 (91-D-1088).

Summerhill’s MW 8 (90-D-5008) in Local link livery parked on the departures level of Dublin Airport operating the then new route 230 from Portmarnock to Dublin Airport. Notice Summerhill’s RH 26
(90-D-1026) in the background on the express service from/to Busarus waits for passengers on a very quiet March 1991 day.

On 11 April 1991, An Post issued a First Day Cover in celebration of “Dublin 1991 - European City of Culture” with a stamp featuring a drawing of Dublin’s City Hall by Michael Craig and design by Ian Calder.

Donnybrook’s D 378 (88-D-988) in newly applied “Dublin 1991 - City of Culture”, AOA livery parked on Eden Quay.
1991 was the 75th Anniversary of the 1916 Rising (1916 – 1991), D 378 was part of a 5 strong convoy ferrying guests around various 1916 historic Dublin locations.
Other buses used in the convoy were “EC Presidency”, AOA, RH 2 (Phibsboro) and Donnybrook’s wedding liveried RH 41, green liveried RH 42 and RH 43 and “Euro Bus”, AOA, KD 273. Appropriately, Donnybrook’s RH 42 and RH 43 displayed 75 on the route number scroll/display.

Donnybrook’s DF 782 (782 BIK) on Eden Quay about to set off on the very picturesque route number 8 to Dalkey on a rather wet April 1991 day.

Aer Lingus, 273 seater, Boeing 767-3YO(ER), EI-CAL, ‘St. Kevin’ lines up on Dublin’s runway 34 bound for London Heathrow on a fine April 1991 day. EI-CAL and another B767, EI-CAM were leased from Guinness Peat Aviation Group (GPAG) in early/late 1991. The intention was to use them on a new Los Angeles, California (hence the CAL registration) route from Ireland but the plan did not materialise so the two 767’s were sub-leased to other airlines.
 EI-CAL went to Aeromexico, Air Aruba until the Aer Lingus lease expired then GPAG leased it to SAS, Canadian, Air Canada, TWA and currently (2008) is flying for Lithuanian airline, Lat Charter as
YL-LCY in Virgin Nigeria livery.  Brand new EI-CAM went direct to Aeromexico in late 1991 returning to Aer Lingus in summer 1993 next to TWA in 1994, Icelandair/Loftleidir Icelandic, AV8, Volare, Israir, Santa Barbara then in 2006 went to EL AL Israel Airlines as 4X-EAP and is still flying with them as at summer 2008.

Summerhill’s newly converted to tours duties/livery D464 (464 ZD) with closed upper deck was parked outside Dublin Bus Head Office in April 1991. Phibsboro’s D576 (576 ZU) is parked up behind. In May 1991, Donnybrook’s open top D413 (413 ZD) was painted from previous tours cream livery into the new city tour green/cream livery, see picture 21 below. Another Summerhill Atlantean D 469 (469 ZD) was transferred to the tours fleet and after conversion into an open top entered city tours service in June 1991.

Donnybrook’s brand new RH 86 (91-D-1086) seen in Hawkins Street operating the route 48A to Ballinteer. Notice D 378 in “Dublin 1991 – European City of Culture”, AOA livery in the background parked on Burgh Quay

Donnybrook based open deck D413 (413 ZD) in newly applied green/cream city tour livery, D413 had previously been painted in an overall cream livery.

Clontarf’s D 632 (632 ZO) on the route 44A photographed on Seapark Road, Clontarf  awaits its time to return to Marlborough Street. Notice the wine/black coloured Citroen 2CV passing along on Mount Prospect Avenue.

Phibsboro’s showbus standard D 376 (376 IK) southbound on the route 10 to UCD, Belfield. Notice the Leyland front and rear wheel trims and Euro style front number plate. The previous month, April, D 376 had attended the Belfast, ITT Bus Rally in the company of KD 339 in “Stanley Tools”, AOA livery and brand new yet to be delivered RH 88.

Donnybrook’s brand new RH 90 (91-D-1090) seen on Marine Road, Dun Laoghaire operating the route 75 to The Square, Tallaght.

Donnybrook’s KD 164 (164 JZL) in newly applied “Sheils on the Green – Food Hall”, AOA livery at the route 46A terminus in Dun Laoghaire.

Donnybrook’s KC 95 (UZG 95) ex. Cork, photographed at Bray Station on the route 85 to Enniskerry. Notice the TZS registered (1986) Toyota Starlet parked up behind.

Ringsend’s brand new RH 95 (91-D-1095) photographed on Crampton Quay about to depart on the route 49A to Bohernabreena. Ringsend received the batch RH 94 – RH 110 (91-D-1094 to 91-D-10110). Notice the Hella spot lamp covers still in situ.

Aer Lingus, all tourist class configured 468 seater Boeing 747-130, registration EI-BED, named “St. Kieran” photographed in August 1991 just after its repaint into fleet livery having previously been in basic LAN Chile livery. The 130 reference indicates that it was a 100 series 747, the number 30 was the Boeing customer designator for Lufthansa as EI-BED had originally been delivered 21 years previously in 1970 to the German national airline, Lufthansa as D-ABYC.

KR 12 (EZV 12) in “B+I”, AOA livery photographed on Aston Quay heading for the long 165 mile journey to Cork. Notice the full size KD/KC destination/route number unit and pay driver/conductor sign in the front nearside dome, these were fitted at Donnybrook. KR 12 was one of a batch of 6 buses, KR 9 – 14 ex. Limerick that were sent to Donnybrook in 1988, painted into Dublin Bus green livery with the intention of utilisation for North Wicklow routes, which sadly didn’t develop as planned, so all were painted back into red/white livery and returned to Bus Eireann by end of 1988.

Phibsboro’s KD 203 (203 OZU) in “PMPA”, AOA livery on loan to Clontarf Garage in August 1991 photographed operating the 29A to Newgrove Cross, Donaghmede, KD 114 went from Clontarf to Phibsboro in return. The Minimum Fare was applied on Monday – Friday, 17:05 – 18:20 departures. At this time Donnybrook’s KD 32 in “PMPA”, AOA livery went on loan to Ringsend and was used mostly on route 55 to Greenhills.

Scenes from the Ron Howard produced/directed and co-written film “Far and Away” starring Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman were shot in Ireland during 1991. This adventure, drama, romance film followed two Irish immigrants (Cruise & Kidman) to 1890’s Boston. Film sets in Ireland were Temple Bar in Dublin, Bray in Wicklow and Dingle in Kerry.  This photograph was taken in Temple Bar and successfully portrayed a cobbled city street typical of 1890’s Boston.

Phibsboro’s RH 4 (90-D-1004) in newly applied “Harp Larger”, AOA livery while operating southbound on the route 10 to UCD, Belfield. There were 6 Harp Larger AOAs  in total, RH 4 in Phibsboro, RH 9 in Ringsend, RH 24 in Summerhill, RH 40 Donnybrook, RH 64 Clontarf, RH 65 Conyngham Road.

Summerhill’s KC 118 (UZG 118) photographed at Busarus on the 20 minute frequency Dublin Airport Express service. Notice the middle door had been removed and coach style seats and curtains were fitted for this express service. Commuter tickets tickets were not valid for this service, a flat fare of IR£2.30 applied one way. KC 118 was previously in the very attractive “Aer Lingus”, AOA livery, as evidenced by the Dublin Bus logo and script still applied to the middle side window and the rearmost side window slot panelled over where once the Aer Lingus shamrock logo was painted.

Broadstone’s KE 27 (27 VZJ) in Expressway livery photographed while in transit from Busarus to Tullamore, Co Offaly. 1961 vintage (then 30 years old) Leyland Leopard, E 14 (CZA 674) can be seen behind KE 27 which had operated as back up vehicle from Busarus to this point, passengers from E 14 transferred onto KE 27 which then continued to Tullamore.

Donnybrook’s KD 273 (273 OZU) in newly applied “Panasonic Audio Hi-Fi”, AOA livery complete with wheel trims photographed on O’Connell Bridge heading back to Donnybrook on a sunny August 1991 evening.

Phibsboro’s brand new RH 111 (91-D-10111) photographed on O’Connell Street while operating the route 10 to Phoenix Park in September 1991. Phibsboro received the batch RH 111 – RH 125 between September and December 1991. RH 120 was only a matter of weeks delivered when it was painted in an AOA for Dublin Bus, “Travel Ten” pre paid tickets entering service as such in January 1992. RH 115 – RH 123 were delivered from the factory with small sized Leyland front badges fitted into the top slot of the grille and these gave the bus quite a different visual appearance, see picture 55 (RH 122) below,

RH 124 and RH 125 were fitted with the usual larger sized examples back in normal grille position. Notice the 1985 registered Opel Ascona taxi pulled up behind.

Bus Eireann, Vanhool Alizee integral expressway coach, EVH 1, (SI 3001) photographed on Eden Quay having completed the long trek from Ballina. EVH 1 was one of a batch of 15 delivered new to CIE in 1986 in red/orange livery and were registered SI 3001 – SI 3015. Notice that “Dances with Wolves” and “Silence of the Lambs” were featuring in the Screen 1 & 2 cinemas at the time.

Phibsboro’s KD 348 (GSI 348) photographed on O’Connell Street, September 1991 in newly applied “Telecom Eireann CallCard”, AOA livery operating the route 22A southbound to Drimnagh. KD 348 was the first KD to be painted into an AOA. The liveries were “PMPA Telecover” AOA (August 1988 - June 1990), “Lee Cooper” (June 1990 – September 1991), “Telecom Eireann CallCard” (September 1991).

Donnybrook’s KD 156 (156 JZL) photographed on O’Connell Street, September 1991 in newly applied “KP Skips”, AOA livery operating the route 11 northbound to Wadelai Park.

Donnybrook’s KD 150 (150 JZL) photographed on Eden Quay, October 1991 in newly applied “Rehab Bottle Bank”, AOA livery operating the route 8 to Dalkey. Notice KD 364 in “West Coast Cooler”, AOA livery behind.

Broadstone 8th December 1991 - from left to right ex. Donnybrook DF426 (426 ZD), DF429 (429 ZD) and ex Phibsboro/Cork D 579 (579 ZU) await their fate. Just to the left of picture sat a forlorn ex.Conyngham Road\Cork, Leyland powered Vanhool D Atlantean, D 649 (649 ZO), this was the first planned withdrawal of a Vanhool D Atlantean from service. Elsewhere in Broadstone on this day there were circa. 30 Standard D (DF 500’s) Atlanteans (mostly ex Phibsboro) awaiting removal for scrap.

Dublin Bus timetable valid from March 1991. The timetable was of a 4 ring binder design to ease insertion of updated pages which could be sourced from Dublin Bus HQ. The cover featured a picture of D 378 (88-D-988) in “Dublin 1991 – European City of Culture”, AOA livery.