[MrX]

I had a similar experience at a totally empty Sandymount Station late one night. Can't remember the date, but I assumed I was about to be attacked. A guy with no uniform approached me with a really strong accent demanding my ticket. I thought he was looking for my wallet and legged it.

Never even assumed he was from IE ! To this day assumed he was some chancer trying to grab my wallet as there'd been a few incidents like that in England.

I'm a big guy, but if someone who has no uniform, looks and sounds threatening with an accent that I cannot understand approaches me in a dark corridor demanding stuff he can hardly expect to get a pleasant or cooperative response. In fact, there'd be plenty of people who'd react extremely badly.

How's a tourist or foreign resident likely to react? I know plenty of people in the US would would pepper spray someone who did that!

I also remember an incident in Cork a few years ago where a ticket inspector made my then 82 year old grandmother rummage through her luggage as she had her printed ticket from the ticket desk, but he wanted to see her OAP travel pass. She doesn't look like a 55 year old trying to pretend they're 65 and she had serious difficultly rummaging through her luggage. She couldn't remember where she'd put the pass. She gave him a serious telling off and boarded anyway, threatening to call the station master.

And yes, I have never understood why the Dining car / snack car *always* closes on the Cork train (complete with announcement) 1 stop before the final destination. Nor how they can randomly have one level of service on one train and an entirely different level of service on the next e.g. no food at all, yet charge the same price for a ticket.