UK theme park blacklisting the Irish

A firm which runs six United Kingdom holiday parks has been barring bookings by anyone with an Irish surname or accent, it was reported today.

The idea behind the secret blacklist was to prevent the presence of Irish Travellers and Gypsies, who the resort firm Pontins deemed "undesirable guests."

In the United States, police routinely characterize the Irish Travellers from South Carolina and elsewhere as con men and scam artists. Detective Edward Mack, the Chicago Police Department's confidence game expert, has said, "They represent themselves as legitimate business people, but I've never really run into any that were legitimate in my 30 years doing this."

According to an investigation, which was first revealed by the UK's i news website, staff at Pontins would monitor calls and refuse bookings by anyone with an Irish surname, or even an Irish accent.

If any bookings fell through the cracks, they would later be canceled.

The following Irish surnames were blacklisted by the firm: Boylan, Boyle, Carney, Carr, Cash, Connors, Corcoran, Delaney, Doherty, Dorran, Gallagher, Horan, Keefe, Kell, Leahy, Lee, Maclaughlin, McAlwick, McCully, McDonagh, McGinley, McGinn, McGuinness, McHarg, McLaughan, McMahon, Millighan, Mongans, Muprhy, Nolan, O'Brien, O'Connell, O'Donnell, O'Donoghue, O'Mahoney, O'Reilly, Sheriadan, Stokes, Walch and Ward.

The resort firm agreed to cease enforcing the blacklist after a whistleblower came forward.

Pontins' holiday parks are Brean Sands at Burnham-on-Sea, Somerset (near Weston-Super-Mare), Camber Sands at Rye, Sussex (near Hastings), Pakefield Holiday Village at Lowestoft, Suffolk (near Great Yarmouth), Prestatyn Sands at Prestatyn, North Wales (near Rhyl and Chester), Sand Bay Holiday Village at Kewstoke, Somerset (near Weston-Super-Mare) and Southport at Ainsdale, North West (near Liverpool).