Sunday, November 16, 2025

Is Miriam Lord talking about buses or kisses?

Miriam Lord’s musings in The Irish Times this weekend bring a smile to the reader. She had plenty of material about which she could write.

This paragraph appears in the context of the presidential inauguration: “We were put on the busses at half ten in the morning and didn’t get out of the place until after half two. If you weren’t one of the first out of the hall after the ceremony you were lucky to get half a sandwich. It wasn’t much better in the evening when we came back, although there was more wine. Some people were half-p***ed in no time because they had nothing to eat,” said our Dáil confidante."

Is the plural of bus not buses? It’s worth noting it’s a quote but it’s doubtful the speaker spelt out the word.

Google dictionary has this to say: Busses This spelling is less common and some style guides may not accept it as the plural of "bus". It is, however, the plural of "buss" (an old-fashioned term for a kiss). 

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