Complaints about drug abuse, homophobia, and fights on Cork trains

A water fight, a teenager smoking weed, people exiting the toilets together with needles in their arms, hot drinks thrown, multiple fights and the open use of cocaine were among the issues reported on trains to and from Cork in the last year.

“Terrifying” and “traumatising” were among the words used to describe some of the anti-social behaviour in complaints provided to The Echo.

Lots of the complaints were about young people – one reported eight teenagers being loud, playing music and being “physically violent with each other, including hitting the one girl in their group”.

Another said that after the Ploughing Championships last year, “approximately 100 drunk teenagers got on the train at Portarlington” and have spent the entire journey “standing on chairs and tables screaming” and shouting and banging the ceiling.

“They’re openly drinking out of glass bottles (and mixing drinks in plastic ones) as well as doing shots in the middle of the carriage.

“I saw one light up a joint and just smoke it in the middle of the carriage. Not to mention having to listen to them screaming things like ‘I’d rather be a P**i than a Prod’.”

The person said they “feel so unsafe surrounded by drunk teenagers holding hurleys and screaming”, and described the journey as “torture”.

Another complaint said that six male youths got on a train at Glounthaune outside Cork, and “proceeded to shout and punch one another, then produced water pistols and proceeded to spray water at each other, myself, and other commuters.”

One said that a fight broke out between “a group of youths” on the train and that passengers had to intervene, despite there being a security guard on board.

“He did not intervene, he just stood there and looked at them and did nothing,” the person said.

This is a common cause of frustration – one wrote that two security staff were talking to a man “who was clearly drunk or on drugs”, but the security staff got off before the train left Cork.

“The man got more and more agitated as the journey went on… he eventually started viciously punching a man beside him.”

The person wrote that passengers had to intervene to stop the fight and that young tourists “were terrified”.

They said: “Iarnród Éireann put us all in danger by allowing this man to travel.

“Please do not allow people in this state to travel in a confined space with lots of other people.”

One reported that after waiting 15 minutes to use the toilet, they knocked and “when the door opened, two people emerged with needles in their hands and stumbled past me.”

“I alerted the ticket inspector that there was open drug use on the train and they did absolutely nothing. Shame on you all for what you’ve allowed this service to become,” 

the person said.

This was not the only report of open drug use – one said that two men got on the train at first class and struck up a conversation with another, and “after some conversation between them, to my horror, the two men proceed to give the man cocaine which he proceeded to take sitting in his seat on the train.”

There was also a report of a young man in a “dishevelled looking state, clearly intoxicated or under the influence of drugs” who went up and down the train asking passengers if they had “weed or any tablets”.

One wrote that their train “smelt so strongly of drugs that I’d to move carriage twice”.

Most of the complaints, produced on foot of a Freedom of Information request, related to intoxicated people, including one whereby a “wild, dangerous, and seemingly drug-influenced passenger — who was visibly sweating from his forehead— acted in an extremely threatening manner, making aggressive movements as if he was going to attack, and repeatedly gesturing into a bag under the table as if about to pull out a weapon.”

One person wrote to express concern about “a poor fellow on the train, very drunk and talking about depression and self-harm. He showed me his arm and it was very bloody and covered in sharp marks.”

One complaint said that they suspected drug taking by two adults who were travelling with a child who “smelled strongly of urine and faeces, making the environment for surrounding passengers unbearable”.

They said the adults were “cycling in and out of the toilets for extended periods… I strongly suspect illicit activity was taking place.”

The person criticised a lack of security or even a ticket inspection on the train, saying: “During the trip, I was persistently hassled by the two adults to give them my phone charger.

“To de-escalate the situation and stop the constant pressure, I eventually handed it over. When I later asked for it back, they refused and immediately exited the train at Thurles with my property.”

Another reported “a woman taking and snatching other passengers’ property.”

One person said that “a complete lunatic was roaring, swearing and threatening to hit some Spanish students… the crazy passenger was out of control and threatened everyone.

“The Spanish students were so upset and frightened, as we all were,” yet passengers had to knock on the train driver’s door as there was no security.

“There is nowhere to run in a tight carriage if that lunatic broke his bottle of Captain Morgan and put it through someone’s face,” the person said.

Both racist and homophobic abuse was also reported, including a man making racist comments as IÉ staff passed through the carriages, saying: “Two jabs and that will do them and we can just fuck them off the train”.

One man was reportedly “shouting racist remarks while walking up and down the train corridor”, in the presence of children, while stickers saying immigration is a “planned deletion of Irish-ness” were reported in the train toilets.

One person said they were asked for money and when they refused: “She spat in my face, made a few more disparaging comments, told me to get back to my own country, then started telling people I’d called her a knacker.”

Another reported “an astounding torrent of shouting, abuse and threats from three males including homophobic language, extremely crude profanities, and direct insults and threats to individuals.”

A complaint from a lesbian couple said: “A number of passengers spewed homophobic comments while drinking heavily.”

Other complaints included a situation whereby a man who was asked to move from a woman’s booked first class seat, “got abusive, saying she was a ‘posh bitch’ and her daddy had bought the ticket”.

One man wrote that his fiancée “was physically shoved up against a wall on the train by a young man who appeared to be intoxicated”.

Another said that a clearly intoxicated man was “repeatedly calling me beautiful, and became visibly irritated when I ignored him.

“His behaviour quickly escalated. He began harassing my mother, saying he was going to kiss her.”

One person reported a male passenger telling a female she was typing too loudly, and then another pouring his cup of tea on her laptop bag.

Another said that a man “called us all pigs and threw a coffee cup at us” then walked towards the end of the platform, towards the security entrance, leaving the person questioning if it was a member of staff.