‘Finally we got here’: Irish abroad breathe sigh of relief in first Christmas home post-Covid

For all its schmaltzy, seedy and sometimes sinister undertones there are kernels of truth to be found in perennial Christmas favourite Love Actually, particularly in the opening and closing scenes set in Heathrow airport at Christmas time.

Family and friends separated by both time and distance warmly embrace and shed tears of joy as the Arrival Hall sliding doors open and close to allow travellers come through carrying – alongside trolleys laden with suitcases – stories of love and happiness as well as tales tinged with sadness.

In a monologue delivered over those scenes, Hugh Grant – as the British Prime Minister – says that whenever he gets “gloomy with the state of the world, I think about the arrivals gate at Heathrow airport. General opinion’s starting to make out that we live in a world of hatred and greed, but I don’t see that. It seems to me that love is everywhere.”

Love was certainly all around at the arrivals gate at Dublin Airport early on Thursday morning as a wave of flights from the US landed and decanted weary passengers, some of whom were flying home for Christmas for the first time in a long, long time.

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“I am coming from Toronto and it is my first time home since the Covid,” said Lucy Giorgi from Dublin. In times past she was a frequent flyer across the Atlantic and had come back 52 times “but with three years of Covid as a first responder I couldn’t do it”.

And was she happy to be home?

“I want to kiss the ground,” she said. She had already kissed her godson and sister who were waiting in the arrivals hall for her. “Believe me I am going out and I am kissing the ground, I am delighted to be back.”

She was looking forward to spending the days over Christmas in her godson’s house. “He has a bar and he cooks great food and he has a great wife who cooks like a charm so there is going to be great eats, drink and great craic.”

Danielle Blake and Sean Geraghty were coming in from Vancouver via Chicago with their 10-week-old baby.

[ Passenger arrivals to Ireland close to pre-pandemic levels for the first time ]

“This is our first Christmas home since we left home four years ago,” she said adding that the gap would not have been so long but for the pandemic. “Finally we got here,” she said, her face flooded with relief, not least because bad weather across North America nearly derailed their travel plans.

Sean’s mammy couldn’t stop the tears flowing or keep her hands off her tiny grandson. “It is wonderful to have them home for Christmas and to get our hands on this little dote,” she said.

“We went over when he was born so we managed to get a few weeks with him and it was just brilliant but it went so fast so we are delighted to have them back home with us so I can really mind them properly.”

The family won’t just have little Leo to occupy their time as his parents will be getting married in Dublin early in the new year making their first Christmas back still more exciting and emotional.

Margaret and Pat Rafferty were pretty emotional themselves as they scooped their daughter Abigail into their arms after she arrived from Philadelphia where she has been studying and playing basketball since August.

“It is unbelievable, Margaret said, when asked how she felt about her daughter’s return. “She has been playing basketball flat out, she plays for Ireland. She said she couldn’t wait to get home for her mammy’s Sunday dinner.”

Philadelphia was also where Katie Ronan had come from and was back for good after five years in the US. She hadn’t been home to visit her parents Kevin and Ann for more than two years. “We have been over to see her quite a number of times,” her father said, smiling broadly. “We have no reason to go back to the States, maybe we will send her back,” he joked.

Her teary-eyed mammy was having none of it. “It is good to have her home and we will have a great Christmas although she will be killing us by Christmas Day,” she joked.

May Collins was in floods as she hugged her 15-year-old grandson Aaron Collins after he completed his first solo flight

“It is the best thing ever,” she said. “I have been waiting for it for so long. It is amazing, it is the best Christmas ever. We reared him and his mum married a Canadian and brought him over with her,” she said promising that he would be “spoiled rotten” in the days ahead. “He is not allowed out for the next three days,” she said before they headed off to catch the GoBus to Galway.

While that grandmother was in Ireland Kathy Venard, another grandmother, was arriving from Boston to be met by her daughter, Caitlin Venard, and her infant grandson Ryan McGrady.

“This is my second Christmas in Ireland,” she said. “The last time was four years ago and I didn’t have this guy last time.

“I am very much excited for my second Irish Christmas and it will be fun to have a little one,” she said giving the child a squeeze. “Santa is coming.”