Sixteen days ago they sold everything precious, packed what was left into hold-alls, and left their Romanian village. Carpaciu Sabin, his wife and eight year-old daughter travelled to Bucharest. They met other Romanian gypsy families there, he said, intent on doing the same thing.
After two days in Bucharest they found the contact they needed. The price was 300 deutschmarks, paid to a Moroccan. He opened the door of a container lorry carrying paper and they got in, with a little water and not much food.
After seven days in darkness, they climbed out at night in a strange city, Mr Sabin said. He thinks it may have been Cherbourg.
Another man, they did not know his nationality, led them to a second lorry, also carrying paper. Then on Thursday, after eight days in two containers, the 11 families emerged on to the concrete at Rosslare.
Immigration gardai who opened the container said they knew there were people smuggled aboard it before they opened the door. A large roll of paper had been used as a toilet and the people had no way to dispose of the waste during the 22-hour sea crossing.
"They want their lives to begin here," said the translator, a bright young Romanian with perfect English who arrived in a container on July 10th. "They want to receive political asylum . . . It's the only hope for them." At the St Vincent de Paul hall in Wexford, a man pointed to a scar on his face, saying he was beaten in a Romanian prison, after being thrown out of his house in a racial attack because he was a gypsy. The children, aged between four and 16, smile and offer handshakes. The hold-alls and hessian shopping bags were stacked neatly against the walls. Some had mattresses, others slept on thin gym mats. A sign on a door said "toilets and shower" and soup was being brewed in the basic tearoom.
Like most Romanians already in Wexford, they want to work, a health board source said. "They have trades, as builders and carpenters. But already people are starting to say that you can't walk down a street in the town without seeing them, hanging round in groups.