Dublin Airport’s Christmas time reunions are always emotional, but when Sophie Buller hugged her mother and sister in the Terminal 2 arrivals hall early on Monday morning, it was clear something more than a traditional homecoming from down under was happening.
Just eight days earlier, Buller was surfing on Bondi Beach when the happiness of a sun-kissed Christmas run-in was replaced by the horror of bullets piercing through the evening chatter. Lives were shattered in an attack on Jewish people that shocked the world.
Buller’s mother Vina travelled down from Belfast to greet her at the airport. She hugged her daughter hard as tears streamed down their faces.
Those tears were soon replaced by happy laughter and the giddy excitement of Buller’s first Irish Christmas in a long time.
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“It’s pretty horrible over there at the moment; it’s just very sad and heavy and that makes you miss home even more because it is not what you’d associate with Bondi,” said Buller.. “It just always feels like the safest place ever and it is the most amazing community.”
She said that in the days since the terror attack, which left 15 people dead and dozens wounded, the community rallied around the victims’ families.
“Everyone has been amazing. We did a big paddle of Bondi on Friday morning in honour of the victims and it was really incredible to be part of it, but I definitely just wanted to get back home.”
After hearing the first gunshots, Buller found safety and then texted her mother to tell her she was okay.
“I sent the message pretty much instantly and there was nothing about it for about 20 minutes or half an hour after that. Then it was on the news. I just didn’t want these guys to read about it without having heard from me.
She said she was looking forward to “two weeks of heaven” at home with family, her dogs and “some really good food”.
Barbara Harnett and her daughter Sarah, from Prosperous, Co Kildare, were waiting for her son Gary to come through the sliding doors having also travelled from Sydney. They were giddy with the excitement of it all.
“He hasn’t had Christmas at home in seven years and oh my God, this will be very special,” Harnett said. “I just want to be able to give him a big hug.
“He’s been there seven years and is working as a carpenter so he is kind of settled and I don’t think he will be coming home for good. He will be home for 2½ weeks and that is brilliant.”
Sarah Harnett was positively giddy about the arrival of her brother. “There is only 13 months between us and I am really looking forward to seeing him because I haven’t seen him in a year and a half. We’ll be spending most of our time around Prosperous, I reckon. It’s quiet but I think when he comes home, he just wants to have his normal home life.”
It isn’t just a homecoming that the Harnetts have to look forward to, as one of Barbara’s other sons will be getting married on January 2nd.
Maureen and Tom Condron were waiting for their daughter Amy to come home from Abu Dhabi. She has been working there as a golf instructor for several years and is settled for now.
Her visit will be a flying one – she will be back in Abu Dhabi before the bells chime to ring in 2026.
“She’s getting on well and I send her photos of the rain and all that,” Maureen Condron said. “We FaceTime her every day. She is very independent but she loves to chat about home and keep up with everything.
“Christmas is going to be lovely, really nice. I’m hosting dinner and I have a lot of family coming, so she will meet everyone there.”
Before all that, Tom Condron said, there would have to be a traditional Irish breakfast. “The traditional rasher, sausages, pudding and the Tipperary milk – she misses that. And the Guinness.”
As they spoke, Ellie Burns, who had just come in from the UAE, was nearby, hugging her father Alistair tightly.
“He wasn’t supposed to pick me up,” she explained, tears in her eyes. “He didn’t say anything, he didn’t tell me he was coming. And I was trying to text him to see if he would be picking me up off the bus in Belfast later. And then I walked out and he was there. He’s the best dad in the world.”
She works as cabin crew with an airline and was last home in Ireland during the summer. “Being home for Christmas is just the best. I’ve been looking forward to it all year. I feel like there’s nowhere like home anyway, but at Christmas it brings out a different emotion.”
She said she was looking forward to her mother’s Brussels sprouts “made with a wee bit of bacon”, and “all the food”, adding: “And the drinks, all of it. I just love the whole thing.”
Emma Madden was waiting on her brother John Doherty to come in from Boise, Idaho, as he has done every Christmas since 1992. She was up at 4am to be at the airport and to exchange a warm embrace.
“I come home every year because my whole family is here,” he said with a US twang in his accent. “From what I hear, it’s not just a bit of an accent – I’m a foreigner in both countries now.”
Sarah Lynch and her daughter Erin were both up early and were in the arrivals hall, but they were not waiting for anyone. They were just there to soak up all the love.
“I have been coming every year for 12 or 13 years,” Lynch explained. “It was kind of an organic thing. I came here to collect my mom and her flight was quite significantly delayed, so I was like, right, I’ll get a coffee, and I just sat.
“I saw the reunions getting more and more emotional as time went on. And I got a bit more emotional and I thought, this is so good for the soul. So I started coming back every year and it’s just lovely. Really heartwarming.”
She travelled, as she does every year, from Bray and timed her arrival in the arrivals hall for the long-haul flights.
“So far we’ve seen Abu Dhabi and Dubai, so that’s all the Australian families coming home,” she said. “I will sometimes come out twice over Christmas and sometimes I’ll bring a friend. I think there’s so much disconnection at the minute. I like going home, kind of feeling all full of love and warmth.”
