A marathon air, bus and sea journey home finally came to an end for 47 Galway teenagers yesterday, almost 24 hours after claims that they were refused permission to board a flight from London.
The soccer players from Mervue United FC had endured a delay of more than five hours to their Ryanair flight at a Danish airport on Monday after representing Ireland at the World Youth Games.
When they finally made it to London Stansted, they were told that they were too late to board their two connecting Ryanair flights to Dublin, even though 20 of them were just three minutes late arriving at the check-in desk.
Ryanair refused to carry the teams onwards and instead offered to fly them home from East Midlands airport, 200km away, tomorrow. This would have left the children and their coaches having to pay all of their accommodation and expenses for three additional nights.
Their problems began when a technical fault prevented the group from leaving Aarhus on time on Monday morning.
Stranded in London, club representatives began a search for a bus to take them to Galway, via the ferry from Holyhead, eventually sourcing one late on Monday night.
The children, who had won gold and bronze medals in the U-14 and U-16 finals on Sunday, arrived home to a warm welcome at the Mervue United clubhouse shortly after 3.30pm yesterday.
"The children are tired, but elated," said the Deputy Mayor of Galway, Declan McDonnell, who flew home separately. He paid tribute to coaches George Guest, Donal Devery, and Tom Doyle for their efforts to secure a bus.
"The kids were facing a seven-hour journey to Holyhead and we had to come up with all the money ourselves," said Cllr McDonnell.
Ryanair denied that there was any record of the Mervue group going to the ticket desk and requesting a flight out from London Stansted. This claim infuriated members of the group, who spent a considerable amount of time negotiating with Ryanair staff before deciding to hire a bus of their own for the journey home.
