A fare distance to come for two pints
New York cabbie flying to Ireland to take up passenger’s beer IOU
A NEW York cab driver is spending €700 to fly 3,000 miles to Dublin for two pints of Guinness that he was promised for an unpaid fare.
Fun-loving cabbie John Mcdonagh happily accepted an IOU in 2013 when Dublin man Shane Gaffney, 32, could not pay up.
Shane told this paper: “I was a student, over in America on a J1 visa, working in a golf club in Connecticut and on a night out in New York.
“My credit card didn’t work in the taxi and I had no cash, so I told him that we have a family pub in Dublin and asked if he would take an IOU.
“I remember writing it and the legend accepted it. But I heard no more about it and I hadn’t spoken to the taxi driver since – until I got a message from him recently on Instagram.”
Shane, who now works in ecommerce, added: “I’ve joked with John that I’ll now have to give him three pints, instead of two, due to inflation.
“I was only 23 at the time and on a summer J1 visa between my third and fourth year at college.
“It was great craic. Fair play to John.” Shane’s dad Paul, 66, said: “Shane’s a character.”
Yellow cab driver John Mcdonagh, whose parents came from Donegal, has been a taxi driver for 40 years.
He is now due to collect his pints of Guinness at Shane’s dad’s family pub
Gaffney and Sons in Fairview next Tuesday. The cabbie said: “These two free pints of Guinness will cost me $350 each [€713] as I am taking Aer Lingus to get them.”
John, who grew up in New York borough Queens, added: “We worked out in 2013 what the ratio is between the dollar and the euro and found that Shane owed me two pints of Guinness.
“And then I made him sign a contract, which is the IOU.”
He is also set to perform the one-man play of his life, Off the Meter, On the Record, at the Sean O’casey Theatre in Dublin’s East Wall next Thursday and Friday after he lands.