An Irish-American family, which became separated while travelling to Ireland for a holiday last week, was reunited on Saturday in Co Tipperary after two days of searching for each other.
A series of interrupted voicemail messages to a family member's mobile phone, which was not set up to operate on the Irish mobile network, resulted in the Reillys from St Paul in Minnesota eventually finding each other after 48 hours without contact. Ms Betsy Reilly had appealed on radio and in newspapers for information about her husband, Mr Dan Reilly, and three daughters who had arrived in Ireland but who could not be contacted by her when she landed the next day.
Their ordeal began when one of the couple's four daughters was not allowed to board her flight in the US after officials noticed her passport had expired. Ms Reilly stayed behind with her daughter, Molly, to resolve the issue, while her husband and their three other girls, Claire, Casey and Brenna, travelled ahead to Ireland to begin their short Easter break.
Ms Reilly added: "All the time I was trying to leave messages on my daughter's mobile phone but I kept getting cut off after about three seconds. Eventually she put all the little bits together and realised we were in Bunratty and began ringing bed-and-breakfasts here."