Irish tourists who had been stranded in France by fishermen blocking ports arrive in Rosslare.
A blockade by French trawlermen left Irish tourists stuck in Cherbourg and Le Harve ports. For those stranded in Cherbourg, their ordeal ends when the Irish Continental Line (ICL) car ferry the St Killian docks in Rosslare, County Wexford.
Of the 850 passengers disembarking, one couple is critical about the lack of information and assistance available to those stranded in France. The representative from Normandy Ferries
Had nothing to tell us, he wouldn't come out to see us.
A family describes the volatile atmosphere in France, where English holidaymakers and French fishermen came to blows on the quayside,
They were flinging things at one another.
The man is thankful to the British company Townsend Thoresen as their ferry, Free Enterprise II broke the blockade.
Desperate to get home, another man drove 500 miles from Le Harve to Europoort in the port of Rotterdam in the Netherlands.
We cut our holiday short by a week just to get back.
An RTÉ News report broadcast on 20 August 1980. The reporter is Andrew Kelly.
