THIS WEEK, WE asked our readers to let us know if they have been affected by the closure of Holyhead Port in Wales, which has disrupted people’s travel plans and delayed the arrival of postal packages at the busiest time of the year.

The busy port was damaged during Storm Darragh and authorities in the UK have said it will not be open to ferry traffic until at least 15 January. 

From people who had to leave Christmas presents behind to those unsure if they’d even make it to see their loved ones, here’s some of what The Journal’s readers had to say.

Isobel Ryan

“We and our car were booked on the Dublin-Holyhead Irish Ferries on the 23rd to visit our son and family in England for Christmas. Our daughter and 10-month-old granddaughter were travelling with us. 

“We received an email on Tuesday from Irish Ferries re-routing us through Rosslare-Pembroke, saying to contact them if we wanted to amend the booking. 

“My son lives in North Lincolnshire, so for us to take the Rosslare-Pembroke ferry would more than double our journey time, probably involve an overnight stay and make it a very gruelling journey. (As it is, it is a four-hour drive from Holyhead to Brigg, near Scunthorpe). 

“There was no offer of a refund, which is very mean indeed. We will be over €600 out of pocket as we do not intend to take the re-routed ferry. At best we will be able to credit the fare to another ferry trip. Goodness knows when we will be travelling by ferry again!”

David Carr

“I live in London and try where possible to get the sail-rail home to Dublin for Christmas. 

“Although it’s a slower journey than flying, it’s a very pleasant way to travel and has very significant environmental benefits compared to flying. You can also bring as much as you can carry, so I had done my Christmas shopping in London over the past few weeks, as well as planning to take home wine etc that I have received in work recently.

“Was supposed to be travelling with a friend on Sunday, leaving London at 8am and arriving into Dublin at 5pm, having enjoyed a few beverages on the ferry, all for reasonable price of £57. 

“With the news being confirmed on Friday, I booked a last-minute flight, the cheapest being late on Saturday night, for the not so reasonable price of around £200, and having to leave many of the heavier or fragile gifts I bought in the UK. I am now frantically trying to shop locally to get gifts – they are being bought locally, but they are not as thoughtful as the gifts I spent weeks planning for.

“A frustrating few days, but great to be back in Dublin for Christmas all the same!”

John Boyle

“My girlfriend (29) and I (30) were due to travel home from London to Donegal by ferry on Friday [today] with our dog.

“There was no clarity on whether or not the ferry will be running, so we checked alternative ferry routes and everything had been booked out between now and Christmas except for an overnight ferry on Wednesday night from Fishguard to Rosslare.

“We decided to book this ferry despite the fact Irish Ferries will not refund us for Friday’s ferry.”

One reader, who wished to remain anonymous, said they are already having a battle with their travel insurance company over getting reimbursed for having their ferry cancelled at short notice. The reader described how his family – including three kids and grandparents – had been planning to travel to the UK when they were told that the ferry would not be sailing. He has travel insurance but says that he has already faced difficulties in claiming for his accommodation expenses.

Janet Molphy 

“I was impacted by the Holyhead delays this week when my sister rang me mid-Monday morning to tell me that despite the UK and Welsh media saying that the port would reopen on Friday, the Irish media had flown a drone over and was advising that the very port would be unlikely to open before Christmas.”

Janet dropped everything and contacted the company that operates ticket sales on behalf of the national rail service in the UK. 

“I rang the European trip number for journeys from the UK to Europe. However when I got through to that number the person I spoke to told me without any doubt that this was a UK to UK trip, although my trip is to Dublin. So I described key moments in Anglo-Irish history, including the partition, and I clarified that Dublin was in fact in the Republic of Ireland and was therefore in Europe. 

“This person had little grasp of the geography of the region and was not particularly interested in my logic. He just told me that my code was the UK code and I needed to ring the UK number.

“So I rang the UK number and my opening gambit was talking about Irish politics to a lady who was also not from this part of the world, so didn’t know the geography that I was describing and wasn’t too interested either. 

“However, it unintentionally bamboozled her to the point where she gave me a full refund on the tickets.”

“So I managed to get my refund but during that time when she was still processing it and it wasn’t clear that I was going to get a refund, I suggested maybe we would do an exchange for Rosslare.” 

Janet says the woman on the phone then looked into at and said that trip would be to Europe, so she couldn’t book it for her from the UK to UK desk.

“Go figure! I’ve no idea of the complexities of the English Irish relationship and the Anglo-Irish agreement, but there we have it. 

“I’m now flying with Ryanair at midnight on Saturday from Manchester with my 11-year-old son.

“Please wish me luck.”