A Canadian couple whose message in a bottle washed up on a north Kerry beach two months ago say their visit to Ireland to meet the couple who found the bottle has been very special.
Brad and Anita Squires, from Bell Island in Newfoundland, arrived in Magharees to meet Kate and Jon Gay who came across the bottle while out walking their dog on Scraggane Bay on 7 July last.
Kate held off opening the bottle until she met up with fellow members of the Magharees Heritage and Conservation Group later that evening and after some difficulty in getting the note out of the bottle - they even tried chopsticks - they broke it open and much to everyone's delight discovered the love note.
Wondering how life had panned out for young couple, and having had no success contacting them by the phone number in the note, they posted it on their social media page and within 40 minutes the rest was history.
Since then, the story of the love note - written by Anita after a day spent together on the island on 14 September 2012 when they were dating, and tossed into the sea by Brad - made headlines worldwide.
The handwritten note simply said: "Anita & Brad day trip to Bell Island today, we enjoyed dinner, this bottle of wine and each other, at the edge of this island."
The bottle travelled over 3,000km before it ended up in seaweed on the beach.
Invited to visit Ireland by Tourism Ireland and West Jet, the couple, who have three children, are celebrating their ninth wedding anniversary this week.
Brad, who is a former Royal Canadian Mounted Policeman, said when they first heard about the bottle washing up in Ireland, they were in a state of shock.
"Like, we have children, we’re married. This is our ninth wedding anniversary this weekend. Like, our life has changed so much, and when our phones started going off I was putting our youngest to bed, and it was late, and we were like, is everything okay?
"Everything was just fine. It was family and friends saying 'this is you, guys. We know it is you, guys'. And yeah, it took 13 years to get here, but they posted it, and 40 minutes later, we were on the phone with them."
For Anita, who is an emergency nurse, it has been really special for them both.
"It’s a really special thing for us to remember back all those years, like our lives were different and we’ve been reminiscing about those times."
Anita’s maiden name is Moran and she is proud of her family connections with Co Mayo. One of the first gifts Brad gave her when they were first dating was a Claddagh ring which she treasures.
The couples had hoped to meet up on the beach, but squally weather forced them to meet indoors in Spillane’s pub where members of Magharees Heritage and Conservation Group had also gathered.
The couple brought with them gifts from home including Newfoundland Whisky, Wabana tea, and plenty of pens for anyone wishing to write their own messages.
For Martha Farrell, of the Magharees Heritage and Conservation Group, today was "a real story of serendipity".
"What were the chances of this bottle - which was bobbing around the Atlantic for 13 years - [to] land up on the beach at Scraggane Bay when one of our members happens to be going for her walk with her husband and her dog and on that very night we were holding the first ever meeting we ever had in Kate’s home and she had the generosity of spirit to wait for us to open it.
"Most people probably would have opened that bottle and read that message straight away but she waited for us, just to share that with us and, of course, our story has been brought into this story so it is great for us, really."
