Soccer fans’ fury at “disgraceful treatment”

April 1995

THREE soccer fans from Tralee have hit out at Iarnród Eireann for what they feel was “disgraceful” treatment of the public prior to Wednesday’s European Cup soccer qualifier with Portugal at Landsdowne Road.

Michael ‘Fox’ Connor from Kevin Barry Villas, along with Tony O’Neill of Manor Village and Peter Hawkins of Connolly Park each purchased a special offer Iarnród Eireann ‘soccer special’ ticket for £17.

This ticket entitled them to travel from Limerick to Connolly Station, Dublin, on a non-stop train, and the fare included the Dart from Connolly Station straight to Landsdowne Road.

However on arriving in Limerick to catch the train, the group discovered that the train they were supposed to board had come from Cork and was already full.

“It was a train with a capacity for 250 people, but there was already 500 people on board and it was absolute mayhem. People were standing in the corridors squashed together like animals,” Mr O’Connor told The Kerryman.

“For the sake of our own safety, we decided not to board it. It couldn’t possibly have been safe with all those people piled in together on top of each other. We decided there was no way we were getting on board.”

He said they approached the inspector at Limerick Station and complained but he gave them no explanation except to say that they had no extra carriages available to add on to the train.

The three men then waited to board the next train between Limerick and Dublin which took them into

Heuston.

“But because we got into Heuston instead of Connolly, we had to fork out £8 for a taxi to Landsdowne Road. It just wasn’t good enough when we had paid £17 for the special ticket and we couldn’t get on the train,” said Mr O’Connor.

“I think Iarnród Eireann were misleading the public by saying this was a special train which ran non-stop to Dublin. As well as ourselves, there was about 30 other people on the platform in Limerick who refused to get on the overcrowded train, so there’s a lot of people very fed up over this,” he added.

The Kerryman contacted the Iarnród Eireann press and information office on Thursday morning for a comment on the incident but no-one was available to comment at the time of going to press.

The anchor from a steam ship that sank at the mouth of Ventry Harbour in 1905; it was discovered on the sea bed while releasing some tangled mussle nets; picture sows Noel Ó Cíobháin.