Abandoned by Aer Lingus, 50 passengers have taken matters into their own hands, writes MICHAEL PARSONSin Rome
A GROUP of Irish people stranded in Rome is this morning embarking on the “journey of a lifetime” in an attempt to return home. About 50 people who have been stranded in the Italian capital for four days have hired a bus from a private coach operator and are attempting to return to Dublin in a gruelling three-day journey.
Yesterday the group was putting the finishing touches to their planned “great escape” in the lobby of the Ergife Hotel on the Via Aurelia on the outskirts of Rome. The passengers collected over €7,000 in cash to pay an Italian company to drive them to the French port of Le Havre, a journey of about 1,700km. They hope to arrive in northern France tomorrow afternoon. From there they will take a ferry to Portsmouth in England and then try to return to Ireland with a possible arrival time some time on Wednesday.
The group includes dozens of passengers who were abandoned by Aer Lingus and found themselves marooned in a hotel near the Vatican City.
The passengers on the bus had been due to fly to Dublin last Thursday from Rome’s Leonardo da Vinci airport. They had actually checked in for the flight and were at the departure gates when their flight was cancelled.
Aer Lingus took the group to a hotel outside Rome on Thursday night and bussed the passengers back to the airport on Friday morning to check in for a “rescheduled flight”. But at the airport, passengers discovered that the flight was cancelled and there was no Aer Lingus representative available. After a day spent lobbying the airport authorities the group was eventually taken to the Ergife Hotel but were told at noon on Saturday that “Aer Lingus would not pay any more” and they were “on their own”.
The passengers decided to take matters into their own hands. They included John Coleman (30) from Culleens, Co Sligo, who works in the Ballina Beverages company. He and members of the group helped to organise the coach hire, negotiate rates and navigate possible ferry crossings.
The group showed extraordinary creativity as they pieced together the complex and arduous trip with minimal resources. Among those paying €150 for the much-sought-after seats on the bus was Gerry Sheehan (50) from Shankill, Co Dublin, who is the managing director of oil and gas company Blackstairs Energy Plc. He said:
“I see no chance of planes for two weeks.”
Yesterday morning Mr Sheehan and a business colleague Bob Hamilton tried to rent a car in Rome but were told that none was available until at least Wednesday. Although not looking forward to the trip over land and sea, Mr Sheehan said: “I have to get home for business reasons so I’m prepared to put up with the inconvenience.”
But in a remarkable understatement he echoed the feelings of many of the exhausted passengers when he quipped: “This is not going to be pleasant.”
The Irish Ambassador to Italy, Pat Hennessy, who had heard about the group’s predicament at Mass in Rome yesterday morning, visited the hotel to wish the group good luck on the journey. Mr Hennessy said: “I greatly admire the resilience the group have shown.” He was “impressed by the way they’ve coped” and said that “it was great to see Irish people pulling together”.
Joanne King, who is the consul at the Irish Embassy in Rome, spent the afternoon and evening assisting passengers with their plans for the journey.
The group was scheduled to leave on the bus in the early hours of this morning. This writer is on board and hopes to report from the journey.