‘Hailo’ed saint comes to aid of writer in distress

Many novels include a damsel in distress, but for one of Ireland’s leading authors, it was a "Hailo"ed-saint not a knight who came to her aid.

Kate Kerrigan had been on her way to meet fellow author Cecelia Ahern for lunch on Tuesday when she realised, just after getting out of the taxi she had taken to Brown Thomas in Dublin city centre from Heuston Station, that she had left her laptop in the cab.

The Mayo-based writer was left sobbing as she contemplated the fact that 80% of her latest novel was stored on the computer — and it was not backed up anywhere.

An SOS was sent out on social media by a number of people, including Cecelia Ahern and fellow writers Marian Keyes and Amanda Brunker.

RTÉ 2FM also got involved in the search yesterday morning, asking its listeners for any information which might help recover the laptop.

After an anxious overnight wait, Ms Kerrigan tweeted her joy that the search-operation had been successful.

She wrote on Facebook: “I GOT MY #lostnovel BACK! Lovely Eddie Masterson a Dublin taxi man who is now #myhero. Elated, relieved — lesson learned re BACKING UP and now advocate of HAILO. The Taxi Magnet #Godisgood&soarePeople #happyontrainhome”.

I GOT MY #lostnovel BACK! Lovely Eddie Masterson a Dublin taxi man who is now #myhero. Elated, relieved - lesson... http://t.co/YvBiIobRJH

— Kate Kerrigan (@katekerrigan) May 14, 2014

Accompanying the message was a smiling selfie of the author sitting on a train.

She then tweeted yesterday afternoon: “At home in #Mayo with hubby @niallkerrigan — laptop en route with @TonyMurphyActor. #HappyEnding”.

At home in #Mayo with hubby @niallkerrigan - laptop en route with @TonyMurphyActor. #HappyEnding pic.twitter.com/WrwDgj401z

— Kate Kerrigan (@katekerrigan) May 14, 2014