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Irish visitors to Isle of Man scramble to get home for Easter after ferry crashes into pier

The vessel hit Victoria Pier while attempting to dock at around 10.40pm on Wednesday.
The vessel hit Victoria Pier while attempting to dock at around 10.40pm on Wednesday. The vessel hit Victoria Pier while attempting to dock at around 10.40pm on Wednesday.

IRISH visitors to the Isle of Man are scrambling for alternate means of getting home for Easter after their ferry was damaged by crashing into the pier.

Five passengers on the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company's catamaran ferry were injured at Douglas when the vessel hit Victoria Pier while attempting to dock at around 10.40pm on Wednesday.

The company said early indications suggested a "systems control failure" led to the crash which has disrupted all sailings over Easter - including those to Belfast and Dublin.

One man whose sister was due to return to Northern Ireland yesterday said she now faces having to stay on the island until Thursday.

"She has been there since the day before St Patrick's Day and was due home today because she has relatives coming to stay with her," he said.

"There is an option to fly to Dublin, but the price of flights are very expensive and she cannot get an answer from the company about whether they will reimburse her for the flight.

The disruption will affect people travelling to the Isle of Man for the Easter Festival of Running, which starts on Good Friday.

It is the second year in a row that sailings have been affected over the Easter period, with sea debris causing more than £100,000 damage to the Manannan ferry in 2015.

In a message on its website, the company said: "Regrettably there are no opportunities available for us to operate a sailing to Ireland before Wednesday 30th March, which means we have unfortunately had to cancel the Dublin sailings on Sunday 27th March.

"We currently have a sailing of Manannan to Belfast scheduled at 07:00 on Wednesday 30th March; should the repairs to Manannan take longer than planned, we have a contingency of operating a sailing to Belfast with Ben-my-Chree.

"This would depart at 19:30 with the return departing Belfast at 01:00 Thursday 31st March."

The Isle of Man Steam Packet Company is the oldest continually operating passenger shipping company in the world, having began operations in 1830.

It operates regular ferry and fast ferry services which connect the Isle of Man to Heysham, Liverpool, Belfast and Dublin - the latter two are seasonal crossings.