Irish pub owner comes to rescue of scammed inter-railers
Fergus Duffy, who opened Duffy’s Pub a year ago, rushed to the Irish lads’ aid and ensured they had enough money to continue their journey.
Fergus, who hails from Kells, Co Meath, was described as a “gentleman” on social media by one of the men who said they ‘couldn’t thank him enough’.
Coming up we meet Fergus Duffy from Navan he owns a pub in Krakow Poland he's a real good Samaritan who helped 2 lads who were victims of a card skim out there! He joins us from Krakow after news at 3pm pic.twitter.com/6H0tdsSHky
— LMFM RADIO (@LMFMRADIO) July 20, 2018
Daniel Thompson from Monaghan Town and Gerald Griffin from Claremorris, Co Mayo, both 21, were interrailing around Europe when their cards were skimmed on a night out in the Polish city.
Daniel Thompson posted on Facebook: “Well, what can I say? Fergus is one of a kind. Myself and my friend have been travelling around Europe interrailing and seeing what the world has to offer. When we came to Krakow, we ran into a spot of bother due to our cards being skimmed, which left us penniless. Fergus not only provided us with food, money, a place to stay and a good old pint of Guinness but he made us feel like we were at home, when all we had was a bag of clothes to our name.
“We will be forever thankful for everything Fergus did for us and helping us continue our trip, we can’t thank him enough.”
“The good memories of Krakow certainly outweigh the bad ones now and we will surely be back to Duffy’s pub in the future to visit.
“A true gentleman. Cheers Fergus and keep those Irish tunes playing.”
However, Fergus has played down the hundreds of ‘well done’ messages he has received since the story emerged, saying that anyone would have done the same.
“It was about two weeks ago now when I was contacted by one of the guy’s dads from Monaghan who had looked up Irish bars in Krakow when he heard of the kids’ plight,” he said.
“I found where they were staying and drove down to the hostel and picked them up. They had only eaten a pack of crisps in over a day because they had no money so I took them back to my pub for some food and gave them some extra money for the day.
“They were a bit distressed and disillusioned with Krakow so we had a chat and I found and paid for accommodation for the men, who are in their early 20s.
“They each lost about €900 from their cards on a night out. I was able to sort out a transfer of money to them from their families to get them on their way to Italy.
“Daniel wrote on Facebook about it and it went a bit silly because I’m getting hundreds of messages to say well done. I only did what anyone would do and what I hope someone would do if I or my family found themselves in trouble.””
