Family’s dream Christmas reunion becomes a reality

A couple who gave their first child up for adoption almost three decades ago are dreaming of the perfect Christmas family reunion.

Bridget and Jimmy Dineen, from Skibbereen in West Cork, popped champagne corks yesterday after their son, John, won a competition that will help him pay for his flight home from Australia for Christmas.

Their first-born, Katherine, with whom they were reunited last year after giving her up for adoption in England in 1983, is also flying in to Cork for Christmas with her birth parents.