American tourists in Dublin convinced pilot landed plane in wrong country
Paul McRingo | Dublin Correspondent
An American couple who made their first trip to Ireland to see where their ancestors came from are “absolutely convinced” their flight from JFK did not actually land in Ireland.
Betty and George McGowan from Upstate New York fully expected to find a place resembling that old postcard of the two ginger kids loading turf onto a donkey and cart in Connemara. What they found however couldn’t be more different.
Taxi driver Mwengwe Osinbajo picked the couple up at Dublin Airport and said they both seemed more than a little surprised.
“They got into my taxi and when I turned around and asked them ‘Where to?’ they both just froze. After a few minutes of them staring at me the husband managed to mumble the words Merrion Hotel. Of course I’ve no idea where the hell that is so I just drove them around for half an hour and then charged them €250. Haha! They didn’t even notice that I dropped them off back at the airport.”
After eventually getting to their hotel where they were checked in by grumpy sour-faced receptionist Olga Ivanov, the couple went for a walk in Dublin city centre and decided to sample the delights of Irish cuisine by going into Supermacs on O’Connell Street where all the staff behind the counter were Asian and the security guy on the door was Nigerian.
Betty and George then took a walk up to Moore Street to see the famous Market and hear the iconic shouts of “apples, pears and bananas” from the local women who run the stalls. Unfortunately all they found was Roma gypsy begging gangs and within minutes Betty had her handbag snatched and George had his pocket picked.
It was just a few minutes after that, while strolling along Talbot Street and seeing hundreds of Muslims queuing outside the local mosque, that George finally ‘realised’ that they were not in Ireland.
“I don’t know where the hell we are but it sure ain’t Ireland.” said George. “That pilot should be fired immediately. It’s a disgrace! We saved up a long time for our trip to Ireland and God only knows where the Fuckistan this place is but it’s a goddamn shit-hole.”
The couple then decided they’d had enough and went straight back to their hotel where they gathered up their luggage and booked a taxi to the airport. Unfortunately the taxi driver Ahmed Anwar had no idea how to get to the airport and they were last seen heading south on the N11 towards Wexford.
