Welsh day trippers terror is evil lagers

September 1995

Gangs of ‘ bowsies’ arriving from Wales on cheap day trips are causing regular havoc in the ferry village of Rosslare Harbour.

Hundreds of day trippers, tanked up on duty-free alcohol, invade the village every Saturday for a two-hour orgy of drunkenness, leaving behind a trail of litter and malicious damage.

Affected residents this week revealed the flipside of the day trip trade, which is seen as a business boon by ferry companies offering cheap fares.

The litany of local accusations inclues: - Drunken visitors urinating in public. - Damage to commercial premises and public property.

- Physical assaults on hoteliers.

- Verbal abuse of shop owners and staff - Physical assault of gardaí

- Day trippers exposing themselves in public.

Most hotels in the area have now adopted a policy of refusing to admit Welsh visitors, because of disturbances and damage by day trippers in the past.

‘ They are nothing but savages. They go around in gangs, abusing people and calling them stupid Irish paddies,’ said one man whose business was the scene of a violent incident last week.

A large group of day trippers had called to the premises, and when one was challenged for refusing to pay, he verbally attacked the staff and then put his fist through the window.

‘We are all just sick of it,’ the businessman said. ‘ These pole get tanked up on the ship, and then they are let loose on Rosslare Harbour for two hours, to cause mayhem.

‘ They are terrorising the village. And because of their antics, they are barred from nearly every premises in the place.’

A local hotelier, who was himself punched in the face by a day tripper, confirmed he is one of those who no longer allows Welsh visitors into his premises.

‘We found that when we let them in, then nine times out of ten, we would end up with a problem on our hands. We had several incidents of them breaking glasses and threatening people,’ said the man, who did accept that many decent people arrive into Wexford from Wales on day trips, but added that ‘perhaps the troublemaking goons are just too drunk to make it any further than Rosslare Harbour.’

A spokesman for the gardaí in Rosslare Harbour described the visitors as ‘a right crowd of bowsies’ and said local people are fed up of their behaviour.

‘We have arrest a good few of them,’ said the spokesman, ‘ but once they are released, they never come back to answer the charges.

‘ The local feeling is that the ferry companies are taking the money and then dumping these people into the village,’ he added.

‘We certainly have regulary trouble with them and in fact we have come to expect arrests every week now,’ he said.