AN AMERICAN MAN who was mugged in Dublin over the weekend has said that he was “overwhelmed” by the kindness of Irish people after the incident.

Donnie, from Chicago, spoke on RTE’s Liveline today about being mugged in Dublin city centre on Sunday night, and having his wallet, phone and passport stolen.

He said he was walking along the north quays, near Bachelors Walk, when he asked a woman on the street for directions.

In his own words:

I have an awful sense of direction, I get lost in my own apartment, so I stopped and asked this girl where the hostel was and if she could direct me there.

He said the woman seemed friendly and was walking with him to show the way. He said two men were walking alongside her, when the four of them turned a corner and one of the men pulled a knife on him.

They said: ‘give me all your money’, and the guy behind me, I could see out of the corner of my eye, had a knife. I was frozen in terror, I didn’t know what to do, I was gonna get knifed.

He gave them his wallet, which had €20 in it, but said they weren’t happy with that,

“They said: ‘You’ve got more than that’ and they started punching me in the face, and one of them had me in a headlock and was choking me.”

Donnie then gave them his iPhone, and they ran off with it and all his other belongings. He suffered a concussion, a broken tooth and a cut lip and attended hospital the following day.

Donnie was upset that the incident had happened, and was unhappy that he had to cut his journey short after the theft of his cards and wallet.

Several listeners then phoned in to the RTE Radio One show, while he was on air, and offered him places to stay free of charge so he would not have to fly home early.

Adrian from Cork phoned in and invited him to his home in Ballycotton at no cost.

He said:

You don’t need a passport, you don’t need any money, we’ve got our own currency down in Ballycotton.

Another caller, Dee from Roscommon, who lives on the banks of the river Shannon said he is more than welcome to come up and stay a few days with her.

Adrian, who was still on the line, offered to drive him up to Roscommon after his time in Ballycotton.

Mark Mulvey, who runs a hostel on Dublin’s Parkgate Street also phoned in to express his sympathy at the incident.

He has been helping Donnie and has been letting him stay free of charge in the hostel.

Several more callers phoned in and offered him places to stay and go in Cork, Galway, Mayo, a tour of the Cliffs of Moher, the Blarney Stone and he was even offered a car to use for the rest of his holiday.

Donnie was “overwhelmed” by the generosity of all the people who phoned in, and was delighted that he did not have to fly home early.

He said:

I want to say to everybody that’s been so kind with these offers, if you ever come to Chicago, mi casa es su casa.

He will have now enough to do and see in Ireland until he returns home on 21 May.

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