American tourists openly flouting Ireland's Covid-19 quarantine rules

American tourists openly flouting Ireland's Covid-19 quarantine rules

BY: Rachael O'Connor - Irish Post


MULTIPLE IRISH businesses have been forced to turn away American tourists who have openly admitted to not self-isolating.

As Ireland enters its third week of Phase 3 of the reopening of the economy, thousands of restaurants, bars and hotels have been welcoming customers back in their droves.

But while the Government have pleaded with Irish citizens not to travel abroad this summer and to holiday within Ireland instead, concerns have been raised about the numbers of tourists entering Ireland from overseas.

There have been multiple reports of visitors from the UK and USA -- two countries with high coronavirus figures-- in tourist spots across Ireland.

The United States remains the global epicentre for coronavirus cases, with 3.4 million cases and a continuous daily surge in cases.

Despite this, flights are still entering Ireland from the US, and American tourists have been reported in some of Ireland's most popular tourist spots-- several of which have said they did not self-isolate upon arrival.

In measures introduced to slow the spread of Covid-19, anyone travelling to Ireland from abroad is required to self-isolate for 14 days before mixing with the community; travellers must fill out a form in the airport stating where they will be quarantining and provide a contact number.
Gardaí can check on the address at any time to ensure the person is self-isolating, but a lack of consistency with police checks, and dozens of flights entering Ireland each day, have led to an impossible situation for Irish businesses.

Yesterday evening, Irish restauranteur JP McMahon wrote on Twitter that staff in his Galway restaurant Cava Bodega were "very uncomfortable" as a group of people from Texas dined in their restaurant.
"We have no way of knowing if they just arrived and should be self-quaranting," he wrote.
"We need a decision on this, particularly if people are coming from places with high cases."
Mr McMahon's post garnered a lot of attention from Irish citizens who voiced their anger at the Government's lack of clarification, and from other businesses who had faced the same dilemma as Cava Bodega.

  :tweet:   Jp McMahon:
:Left Quotes: Last night a group of people from Texas dined @cavagalway. We have no way of knowing if they just arrived and should be self-quarantining. Staff very uncomfortable. We need a decision on this particularly if people are coming from places with high cases.

:tweet:  

Covid-19: Restrictions on travelling abroad may last several years ...
Dr McConkey says Ireland should insist on people arriving from the US, Britain and Portugal to qo into quarantine
irishtimes.com

:tweet:  Gregans Castle Hotel:
:Left Quotes:  We had to turn away 2 Americans for dinner last week. They were renting a house in the area and had flown straight in from Denver.

Gregans Castle Hotel, based in the Burren in County Clare, said they "had to turn away two Americans for dinner last week".
"They were renting a house in the area and had flown straight in from Denver."
Another popular Galway bar and restaurant, The King's Head, which usually welcomes tourists with open arms, said "we refused a group of Americans yesterday who admitted that they had just flown in".
Following the response to his post, Mr McMahon confirmed that any future international bookings into the restaurant will be asked for the date in which they entered the country, and will not be served if they entered less than 14 days ago.

In a separate post, a spokesperson for Clare-based bike rental business E-Whizz said they lost out on business after turning away a group who admitted to not self isolating.
Taking to Twitter, owner Janet Kavanagh said she "had to cancel guests booked [a] on guided tour who just arrived from the US and didn't think 14 days self isolation was 'mandatory'".
"I know we are in tourism but I'm just not willing to risk it for staff and other guests," she wrote.
"These people are in the country and socialising."
The stark warning comes after figures released by the National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET) last week showed out of 23 new cases in a 24-hour period, 17 were 'travel-related'.

A PROFESSOR at Trinity College has claimed that it's "outrageous" to let American tourists come to Ireland, suggesting that it's a "surefire" way to increase Covid-19 cases in the country.


Biochemistry Professor Luke O'Neill said that allowing tourists of any kind to enter the country was dangerous, but particularly ones from the US, given America's significant coronavirus problems.
Speaking to the Irish Examiner, O'Neill said he was deeply concerned with the news that hundreds of American tourists were flying into Dublin every day.
"It's outrageous, isn't it? Here we have one of the most dangerous places in the world for Covid-19," Prof O'Neill said.
"The likes of Texas and Arizona the numbers are terrifying there, they're breaking records every day with the numbers going up there.
"Yet these people are coming into Ireland and I think it's disgraceful," he added.
O'Neill's complaints come just days after it was announced that tourists coming to Ireland are expected to quarantine for 14 days upon arrival.
However critics of the new travel guidelines - including O'Neill - have suggested that they're unclear, boosting the risk of a second wave of coronavirus cases.
Not only that, but many are angry that Ireland is letting tourists into the country while more-or-less refusing to permit their own citizens to take holidays abroad.
"Look at what is happening at the moment, it seems to be fairly chaotic. Even I don't know the full guidelines," O'Neill added.
"People in my lab want to go to the likes of Italy and other places but they can't at the moment because they will be put into quarantine, which is a good thing of course.
"Others are thinking they might go and they're hoping that maybe the list of green countries will be released soon.
"It does seem to be a bit confusing at the moment."

THE IRISH Government are facing growing calls to suspend passenger flights from the United States as the number of travel-related coronavirus cases continue to rise.


In the past two weeks, 12% of all new cases identified in Ireland are related to international travel, a significant jump from the 2% seen throughout the early stages of the pandemic.
Daily flights from the USA, the epicentre of the coronavirus emergency, are arriving in Dublin, some from the worst-hit states including Florida and Texas, and there are fears the unreliable quarantine measures could result in a second wave hitting the country.
Speaking yesterday, Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney said between 200 - 250 people a day are arriving into Ireland from America, a fraction of what would usually be seen in the tourist season but which still amounts to up to 7,500 people per month.
Many of these are Irish people returning home, Mr Coveney said, and a flight from Dallas earlier this week which caused major concern on social media had only sixteen passengers.

Minister for Foreign Affairs, Simon Coveney, said 200-250 people are arriving into Ireland from America every day, but most of these are Irish people returning home

Opposition parties, including Labour and Sinn Féin, have called for more severe restrictions on passengers entering Ireland from abroad, and have put pressure on thegovernent to publish a 'red list' of countries where the virus is prevalent.
Countries on the 'red list'-- which would include the United States-- would be barred from entering Ireland until their coronavirus numbers are down.
Labour party spokesman for transport, Duncan Smith, said flights from America and other hotspots should be suspended until mandatory Covid-19 tests could be carried out on passengers entering through airports.
"There is huge public concern at the arrival into Ireland of visitors from the United States, and the total lack of enforcement of the 14 day mandatory quarantine period," Mr Smith said.
"The current rules are unworkable and unenforceable, and the public are rightly upset about this."
"The pandemic is out of control in large parts of the United States, and all our hard work to protect our most vulnerable is now at risk if visitors from there to Ireland don’t follow the recommended 14 day quarantine."

Sinn Féin spokesperson for transport Darren O'Rourke condemned the Government's "lack of clarity and policy coherence in relation to checks and controls at ports and airports" and reiterated the call for a 'red list' of countries where the virus is prevalent.
Co-leader of the Social Democrats, Róisín Shortall, said the current measure of having passengers fill out a form stating where they will be self-isolating for two weeks was "tokenistic" and "unenforcable" as checks are often not carried out.
She suggested a mandatory quarantine for incoming passengers or two coronavirus tests, both of which must return negative, before people are allowed to mix with the community.
Minister Coveney says that while there is no plan to suspend flights as of yet, there will be stricter guidelines upon entering the country, and anyone found to be giving false information on their passenger locator form could face a fine or prison sentence.
"If you’re lying to us, you’re breaking the law, and that’s a very clear message that comes with the legislation that underpins the passenger locator form and the obligations that come with it."

American visitors say they feel 'much safer' in Ireland as US is far too 'complacent' about Covid-19

AMERICANS who have recently made the trip to Ireland have said how much more comfortable they feel about coronavirus on Irish shores compared to their own.

Hundreds of visitors have been arriving from the US over the past couple of weeks, some for holidays and others to visit family, but the general consensus among them seems to be that they've a better chance of avoiding catching Covid-19 here than they do back home.

Despite this, Ireland has experienced a recent surge in cases since air travel links to North American were reopened, but every passenger arriving at Dublin Airport felt that their six-hour journey across the Atlantic was justified.

Damian Flanagan, who lives in Miami, Florida, told the Irish Daily Mail he urgently needed to be with his sick mother here in Ireland.

He added that people were becoming complacent in Florida which saw a record high of 15,300 new cases of COVID-19 on Saturday.

"I wouldn’t have taken the chance if it was any other scenario, but my mother is very unwell, and I needed to get back to her as soon as I could," he said.

"The situation in Florida has gotten very bad. The number of cases plateaued in May, but once the businesses opened up again people started becoming much more complacent.

"We're now worse off than ever before which has left an awful lot of older people extremely worried about their safety."

Visitors are required to quarantine themselves for at least 14-days upon arrival in Ireland, and there have been some calls for those who don't adhere to the rule to be fined or even jailed.

Linda Dooley from San Francisco came to Ireland with her daughters Saoirse, four, and Emma, seven, to visit her family in Galway.
She admitted to being a little anxious about visiting but insists that her and her children are adhering to the rules.
"I was a little apprehensive coming over, but it wasn’t as bad as I expected," she said.
"We took all the precautions and made sure that everything we did was in accordance to the guidelines."
She continued: "The girls are off school for the summer months, so I felt it was a good time to come over to visit family
"We’re now going to spend two weeks self-isolating and take nothing for chance."

And Catholic priest Fr Michael Daly, from Chicago, felt that a one-month visit to Silverstream Priory in Co. Meath was too good to pass up.
"I will be staying at the monastery, not for family reasons, but because of my long desire to come here," he said.
"I’ll be adhering to all the rules and will be self-isolating, so I can’t see how my visit to Ireland could be deemed unsafe."

Galway poet writes sombre piece reflecting on Ireland's changed attitude to American tourists
By Rachael O'Connor - Irish Post

AN ACCLAIMED poet has penned an eye-opening piece on Ireland's changed attitudes to American tourists.


Ireland usually opens its arms to thousands of visitors this time of year, and proudly welcomes back Irish-Americans looking to trace their roots or see the streets their ancestors once walked.

But the land of a hundred thousand welcomes has become wary of the open borders and passenger planes flying in from coronavirus-infected countries-- particularly the United States, where there have been over 3.5 million cases.

Galway-based poet Rye Aker, who was commissioned to record the festivities of Galway's time as the 2020 European Capital of Culture through poetry, has found himself writing on a fundamentally different subject since the coronavius pandemic hit Irish shores and put pause to our normal way of life.

Having previously put pen to paper to thank former CMO Tony Holohan for his work in leading the country through the pandemic while also caring for his ailing wife, Mr Aker has drawn a following for his poetic reflections on the mood of the country.

On Tuesday, Mr Aker unveiled his newest piece, titled 'A Welcome for the Yank'.
Writing on Twitter, he explained his thoughts behind the poem, saying "In a country that opens its arms to tourists, and mainly American ones, there is an understandable nervousness about open airports."

   :tweet:   Rye Aker:
:Left Quotes:  In a country that opens its arms to tourists, and mainly American ones, there is understandable nervousness about open airports. My poem this evening is A Welcome For The Yank @Pendemic_ie @galway2020 @CTribune @galwayad @TG4TV @aosdanaiona @rte @IrishTimes

The piece paints a picture of the traditional way American tourists are welcomed to the Emerald Isle, with citizens proudly sharing our culture and impressing the visitors, before illustrating how this has been turned on its head today.
The time will come again when we welcome our friends from across the pond, he writes, but not today.

Find more of Mr Aker's work on his Twitter page here.

Opinion poll shows nine in 10 believe US tourists who break Ireland’s quarantine rules should be jailed

A SIGNIFICANT proportion of the Irish public believe US tourists refusing to adhere to Ireland’s quarantine rules upon arrival should be jailed, according to a poll from the Irish Mirror.

Under the current government rules, any holidaymakers visiting Ireland is expected to initially self-isolate for a minimum of two weeks.
However, there have been concerning reports of US tourists openly flouting these rules and continuing on with their vacation plans regardless.
Several travelling parties have been turned away from biking tours and restaurants amid concerns they could potentially contribute to the spread of Covid-19.
As a result, It would now appear that the majority of the Irish public are in favour of introducing stricter punishments for those found to be in violation of the rules.
According to a poll conducted by the Irish Mirror, as many as nine in 10 respondents felt US tourists who refuse to self-isolate upon arrival should be jailed.
Some 3,000 readers were polled, with the results proving conclusive to say the least.
While 90% were in favour of stricter punishments, just 10% felt the visitors should be allowed to continue enjoying their holiday in peace.
The increased concern comes as the US continues to set alarming records for the number of new cases of coronavirus recorded on its shores.
While Ireland has fared significantly better, the recent easing of some restrictions has led to an increase in the number of Covid-19 infections.
As a result, the next phase of reopenings in Ireland – including the reopening of pubs not serving food – has been delayed until early August at the earliest.