Sit-in protest mum enjoys new baby and her freedom
Former Thomas Cook worker Avril Boyne was cradling her new baby daughter Chelsea within hours of being removed from a sit-in protest by gardaí.
The 26-year-old revealed she then cried until she found out both she and her partner Ian Mahon were released from Garda custody by a judge.
“I feel great, I feel like I’m walking on air,” said Ms Boyne as she left theCoombe Hospital.
“It still hasn’t hit me. But once she (Chelsea) is fine, I’m fine.”
Ms Boyne, from Cork Street in Dublin’s south inner city, said after a party in her mother’s Crumlin home she plans to enjoy her time with her new arrival and eight-year-old son Jamie.
“I’ll just go home and relax for a couple of days. I just want to enjoy timewith Chelsea and Jamie,” she continued.
“She’s brilliant, She’s absolutely great. There hasn’t been a bother onher.”
The expectant mother and her partner were arrested in a dawn raid along with nearly 30 workers, trade union officials and other activists who occupied Thomas Cook’s flagship shop on Dublin’s Grafton Street over the weekend when bosses moved to shut it.
Her baby girl was delivered more than two weeks early weighing 5lbs 14oz just after 11am.
Two Garda officers stood guard at the doors of the maternity ward until the group was released by a High Court judge on condition they would abide by an original order to stay away from the premises and would not trespass again.
“It was all I waited for yesterday. I cried all morning,” continued the emotional mum.
“Once I got the phone call and the guards left it was total relief.
“I think one of these days I’m going to wake up.”
Ms Boyne, who worked as an administrator at the store for nine years, said she hoped bosses and union leaders would strike a better redundancy deal for workers after they agreed to re-enter talks.
“Hopefully something will come out of it and they’ll see that what we done we did for a reason,” she added.
Former store manager Wendy Aldren and colleagues waited at the hospital to give the new mother and baby a bag of presents, including a tin of money donated bymembers of the public over the weekend.
She said 16 female workers in a cell in the Bridewell Garda Station cheered when a garda told them their friend had just had a baby girl.
“We thought as Avril has a new baby and no job she deserves it,” said MsAldren, carrying the tin packed with notes and change.
“We just wanted to support her on the final leg of her journey.”
