Dublin airport lost flights and long queues: “Instead of seeing Harry Styles in Coventry, we’re seeing the ducks in Stephen’s Green”

A couple from Newry missed their flight to Birmingham today due to long queues at Dublin airport, so instead of seeing Harry Styles in concert, they watched the Ducks in Stephen’s Green.

Im Neill and Rebecca Jones arrived at the airport at 6am, more than three hours before their 9:15am flight left, but they weren’t even near the end of the security line.

“I’m a little upset, I’m not going to lie, we drove this morning from Newry, we were supposed to go to the Radio One Big Weekend, no George Ezra, no Harry Styles,” Neill said.

“So instead we’re seeing some ducks here on Stephen’s Green.”

The couple gave up on their trip altogether, as it would be too expensive and they would miss most of the concert anyway.

“We are both students, she just finished her exams and I just finished my clinical practice, so we won’t be able to afford her,” he said.

“The show starts today at 12 and the next flight wouldn’t take us until tonight so we’d miss most of it anyway,” Neill added.

By 1:00 pm at Dublin Airport, the queues outside the terminals had calmed down, but there were still people worried about missing their flight.

At 1:45 p.m., Theresa Quigley and Paddy Little from Dundalk had an hour to catch their flight, but they were still in the security line outside Terminal 2.

“We flew into Lanzarote, we’ve been queuing for three hours,” said Ms Quigley.

Mr Little added: “Our flight is at 2:45pm, so the way this is going, we’re not taking the flight.”

Others in the queue were more certain that they were going to catch their flights later in the day, but the only reason they got to the airport so early was because they heard about the morning chaos.

Those who checked in online or had no bags to check were in a better position, as the only queue they had to get through was security.

“We were queuing down [at the check-in desk] for a couple of hours,” said Phyllis Becker, who was traveling home to Chicago with her husband Mike.

“We arrive here at 12:00 and our flight is at 16:30.

“You can sign in on your phone, but I did it the old-fashioned way and it was crazy.

“We found out it was going to be busy so we left early. However, the people who helped us were very nice, the ladies that work here are great, they’re very nice.”

Meanwhile, friends Lorraine Foy and Chloe Mulligan, from Mohill, Leitrim, arrived at the airport three hours before their flight and were hoping to make it.

At 1:45 p.m., while they were at the end of the security queue at Terminal 2, they said: “We’ve been queuing downstairs for 45 minutes and we just got here. Seems pretty quiet downstairs now. We fly to Palma, our flight is at 16:00.”