An RTÉ presenter, has shared his experience of being denied entry at the EU border while attempting to bring home his newborn daughter, born via surrogacy in North Cyprus.
Darragh McCullough, who hosts RTÉ's Ear to the Ground and is also a farmer in Co Meath, welcomed his baby girl Grace nearly three weeks ago. He is currently in North Cyprus with his wife Aoife and their early-arriving newborn.
"We were at home making the dinner when we got a call to say our surrogate mother had gone into labour and we needed to get on the next flight to Cyrpus," he revealed.
The following day, the couple, married for 16 years, took a direct flight to Paphos in South Cyprus. From there, they travelled by taxi for two hours to the North, where they met their baby daughter Grace for the first time.
"She's doing great, she's feeding great, she's doesn't scream her head off too much.", reports RSVP Live.
However, the journey wasn't without its challenges as Grace was diagnosed with jaundice. Thankfully, after receiving treatment, she is now doing well.
"It's all a mad mix of adrenalin and excitement and nervousness and terror and joy, and at the end of maybe 15 years of trying to start a family, this is what we hoped and dreamed of. To be honest with you, the moment where I felt most emotional about it was when we first took her out in the pram on the street," he confessed to Oliver Callan on RTÉ Radio 1.
"That was just an image that we had dreamed of for a long time," he confessed, tears streaming down his face.
Darragh admitted that part of him had accepted the possibility they might never have a family and "that was fine."
He also disclosed that they didn't embark on surrogacy lightly, revealing that IVF wasn't successful for them. In their situation, all parties involved have legal representation and a DNA test has been conducted.
The surrogate mother hails from Ukraine and according to Darragh, she's doing splendidly. They've met her a few times.
She's experienced in surrogacy, having done it once before, and has two children of her own.
"We are happily married, as far as I know [jokes], and we are fortunate in many ways, but we've faced numerous challenges through IVF and even this surrogacy journey hasn't been straightforward because we're not there yet in terms of bringing Grace home," he shared.
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Yesterday, Darragh and his family made their way to the border between North Cyprus and South Cyprus, which is part of the EU. They believed they had all the necessary documents to cross the border and begin their journey back to Ireland.
"When we reached the border, the guards simply turned us away and the taxi driver informed us that the laws had changed the day before and we need more paperwork... we have to present additional documents to the Turkish Interior Ministry and there's a National holiday here for the next couple of days so we are essentially stuck.
"I was really annoyed about it at the time but, at the end of the day all we lost was accommodation that was booked in the south for a couple of days. It's lovely here in Cyprus, the temperatures are lovely, the sun is shining but I am dying to get home."
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English (United States) ·