Anger as Irish fans ignore travel advice

Irish fans are missing the game but not the trip to Cardiff

Farmers leaders in Wales have branded Irish rugby fans as irresponsible for ignoring warnings about spreading foot-and-mouth disease.

Hundreds of Irish men and women have travelled to Cardiff despite the cancellation of Saturday's the Six Nations game against Wales at the Millennium Stadium.

The fans vowed they were determined to enjoy their weekend break despite the cancellation rugby - because they had already paid for hotels and travel across the Irish Sea.

It is hard to believe that these people can be so reckless

Farmers Union of Wales spokesman

But they were blasted by farmers leaders for ignoring advice about travelling.

A spokesman for the Farmers Union of Wales condemned the visitors for ignoring official advice.

"It beggars belief that some of the Irish fans are doing this - it seems crazy when we are facing such an enormous crisis," he said.

"The reason the match was cancelled was to stop large numbers of people travelling and mixing with others where they could pick up the virus.

Drinks have been flowing despite the cancellation

"It is hard to believe that these people can be so reckless."

More than 20,000 fans were expected to travel from Ireland to Wales until the match was scrapped.

Many had paid more than £200 up front to stay over in Wales for the big game before it was cancelled.

Discussions are taking place to reschedule the match, likely to be 29 April.

Irish visitors in Cardiff said they were determined not to waste their money despite the fears of their own government of the risks of spreading the dreaded disease.

No refunds

Wearing rugby shirts despite having no match to go to, many were planning to spend the weekend drinking and partying instead.

Businessman Steven Carroll, 41, from Newtownards, said: "We've had this weekend booked since early September. We tried to cancel our flights, but we were told that our tickets were non-refundable.

"If we hadn't come over we would have lost money from the cancellation of flights and hotel rooms.

"We even had shirts made up especially for this weekend. It's always a good crack so we decided to come over anyway."

'Pointless'

Doctor Marc Cunningham, 25, from County Armagh, said: "In light of the discovery that foot and mouth has been found in Ireland I find the cancellation confusing.

"A lot of people are travelling anyway just so they won't be out of pocket.

"There are other commercial flights running so it seems pointless just to try to stop rugby fans from travelling - it's not as though we are going to come into contact with any animals anyway in Cardiff city centre."

Brian Farrell, 40, from Dublin, was enjoying a drink in Mulligans Irish bar in Cardiff's St Mary Street.

'Low risks'

He said: "We've had this trip booked since June so we were really looking forward to this weekend.

"We immediately looked for refunds but were told that we couldn't get any.

"Although we were asked not to travel no attempt has been made to stop anyone else from travelling.

"We aren't even going to the countryside so the risk of us spreading the disease is low, we'll spend most of our time in the centre of Cardiff.

'Good welcome'

"If the Irish government were so worried about the foot and mouth outbreak they should have stopped all ferry crossings and flights.

"There's a group of eight of us here and we come over every two years, we always get a good welcome and Cardiff is a great city.

"Even if the match is rescheduled I personally won't be able to afford to come over again."

Cardiff has several Irish-themed bars which began to fill up with fans over for the weekend.

Dempsey's barman Vincent Condorn said: "I've even got 24 of my family coming over and they've been saving for the last four or five weeks to make the trip.

"The Irish are going to come over for the crack anyway.

"They won't want to see all the money they've spent go to waste so they'll make the most of the weekend. If that means still coming to Cardiff then so be it."