A message in a bottle written by an Irish girl named Aoife has been found on a beach in the United States and the finders are on a mission to connect with the writer of the letter.
Frank Bolger, who discovered the message in a bottle on 14th Street Beach in Wildwood, New Jersey, on 17 August, said he was picking up rubbish on the beach during a walk with his wife Karen and granddaughter Autumn when they found the bottle.
The letter is dated 17 July 2019 and the message reads: "Greetings from Ireland. I have thrown this bottle into the sea for someone to find another day.
"Maybe it's travelled down to Africa or to Iceland. I won't know if someone found this, but I hope it's found. Aoife."
Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, Mr Bolger said 'Aoife’ did not include an email or address or any way to identify her other than her first name.
He said that he and his wife thought it was "really strange", so they contacted some people about it and the story went viral.
Mr Bolger said his family came from Ireland to the US in the 1860s but he has never visited Ireland himself.
There is a large Irish community in the city of Wildwood, he added.
He explained that he has spoken to the Wildwood Sun magazine and "that's when a lot of people shared the story, because there are a lot of Irish-Americans in North Wildwood."
He said that he has now had people in Ireland contacting him, including multiple radio and TV stations, but so far ‘Aoife’ has not been identified.
