New wave of emigrants beat weather to get home for holidays

A NEW generation of Irish emigrants was welcomed home with tears and hugs yesterday on the busiest day for Christmas travel at Dublin airport.

Laurence Soraghan’s three grown-up daughters and his wife waited with nerves and excitement for him to arrive in from Saudi Arabia.

“He went there for work on a contract because the projects had finished up here,” wife Catherine Soraghan said.

“He moved there on September 17th,” she said, recalling the date. “It’s been very hard.” There were big hugs and smiles as he arrived, but he will go back in January.

Wearing a tiny red Santa hat, five-month-old Kian was arriving in Ireland for the first time yesterday with his father Michael Young from Tipperary and his Swedish mother, Sara Larsson.

Michael has been living and working in Sweden for three years but he met Sara in Australia. He is looking forward to showing his son off to his sister and brother, who have not seen seen Kian since he was two weeks old.

An Australian romance also brought together Kilkenny natives Maurice Harkin and Maria Dooley who moved home yesterday.

Maria was emotional on arrival as she had not been home for 2½ years, having lived in Melbourne and travelled around Asia. It was “surreal to be home,” she said. Despite the recession they were “positive” about their job prospects.

Parents Derek and Helen Eustace were ecstatic to see their son Dave whom they had not seen for two years. “We’re so glad he is home safe,” they said.

Dave was home for a holiday from Brisbane, Australia, and was looking forward to going out with all his friends.

Tea and toast were on the mind of a tired Aoife Ni Ghloinn, who had a difficult journey from Houston, Texas, where she teaches at a university.

A two-hour delay in Houston meant she missed her connection in London and had to wait on standby to get home. Her bags with Christmas presents inside had not arrived either. However, she was happily going home to Carlow with her father Mike, looking forward to Barry’s tea, real bread and rashers.

Luke Slott arrived home from Philadelphia for a week yesterday, having moved there in July for work. He took three flights to get home, but all went smoothly despite the weather. “It’s nice to be back,” he said.

Many migrants who have settled in Ireland also welcomed their families from abroad to Ireland for Christmas yesterday.

Newlywed Carolina Newgent was waiting for her parents to arrive from Poland to celebrate Christmas with her Irish husband.

She married in Poland last August and will have Christmas Irish- and Polish-style this year.

Tomorrow, they will eat 12 different vegetarian meals to represent the apostles, with midnight Mass, and then it will be a turkey dinner on Christmas day, she said.

Welshman Michael Thomas was waiting for his parents to arrive from Cardiff. Luckily, they were not flying on Monday as there was nine inches of snow, he said.

German Annette Cormack was bringing her parents and sister together to spend Christmas with her Irish husband.

They will have fondue on Christmas Eve and give presents afterwards. Her parents were due to come in on Monday but their flights from Frankfurt had been delayed due to the severe weather.

There were some delays in arrivals to Dublin yesterday, but mainly due to severe weather in mainland Europe and the UK.