Anton McNulty
antonmcnulty@mayonews.ie
Gardaí in Castlebar are investigating an incident which took place on the afternoon Irish Rail service from Dublin to Westport last Thursday where four males started brawling amongst themselves.
The four males, who are believed to be in their twenties got on the 3.30pm train service from Dublin to Westport at Castlerea last Thursday and soon started to cause trouble. The men were reportedly intoxicated and became abusive to each other and other passengers on the train.
As the train started to approach Castlebar at approximately 6.30pm the men started to brawl amongst themselves and passengers alerted the train driver who contacted the gardaí. It is understood that gardaí were waiting at Westport station but the men had already got off at Castlebar. Gardaí confirmed to The Mayo News that a disturbance did take place on the train but would not elaborate on the specifics of the incident or if anybody had been arrested.
A passenger who was on the train at the time told The Mayo News that the men were drunk and made everyone on the carriage uncomfortable by their lewd behaviour.
“They were loud and leering at each other but also at other passengers in the carriage. They were making me feel uncomfortable along with others around me. They were drunk and I sensed things were going to kick off and it did later on. I pretended I was getting off in Manulla and I moved to a different carriage further down the train along with others so I missed what happened.
“I was talking to another person who said they were fighting amongst themselves and when I was getting off I saw one with his top off. It was a very difficult and uncomfortable situation for people to find themselves in,” the passenger said.
Barry Kenny of Irish Rail confirmed to The Mayo News that the incident occurred. He said all of their fleet have high quality CCTV on board which in this case captured the incident and hopes it will enable the gardaí to identify them and result in prosecutions. Mr Kenny said he wished to apologise to the people caught up in the incident and added that there are communication systems on board which allow passengers to notify the driver.
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