Shock travel ban leaves Irish people stranded in UK

Young Irish people stranded in the UK as a result of the new Covid travel ban have spoken about the sadness of celebrating Christmas without family

Amy Gallagher from Kildare will be staying in London this Christmas.

Irish people stranded in the UK as a result of the new Covid travel ban have spoken about the sadness of celebrating Christmas without family.

Jessie and Eli Dolliver, twins from Turners Cross in Cork city, moved to Edinburgh in September. 

Eli and Jessie Dolliver, twins from Turners Cross in Cork city, who are stranded in Edinburgh in Scotland this Christmas.

Their flight home was cancelled, and they were given the option to reschedule the flight to Wednesday.

"But I suspect the 48 hour ban will be extended," said Jessie.

She is studying remotely at Trinity College Dublin while her sister is studying at the University of Edinburgh.

"We are very aware that other people have been alone for longer ... but it is Eli's first time living away from home.

"Thanks to two scholarships, I don't have to work, but Eli has to work about 40 hours a week [in retail] to finance her masters. It's really hard to get time off in December, but she got this week off. We were supposed to fly home yesterday morning at 8am."

It will just be the two of them on Christmas day. "We have to do a grocery shop and plan out the dinner, but thinking about it makes it too real.

Our family is very sad, we are very close. Our little sister is turning 18 next month and doing the Leaving Cert and lockdown has been very hard on her. We would love to see her."

Jessie adds that if Eli had the privilege of a desk job, or they had more money, they would have been able to get home earlier.

"The UK government has mismanaged their coronavirus response, and all we can do now is hope next Christmas we can be together."

Michael Quinn from Tipperary who is stuck in England for Christmas.

Michael Quinn from Co Tipperary is another Irish student stuck in the UK. He self-isolated for the past week and received a negative Covid-19 test, but his flight back to Ireland was cancelled yesterday morning.

He is calling for a better vetting system of those coming into the country to make international travel safer.

Speaking from Chelmsford, Essex, where he is in his first year of paramedic science, he said: 

“Myself and several other students have gotten back negative tests and have been isolating for the last week in hopes of seeing our families for Christmas. Due to Covid, it has been many months since we've seen any member of our families.

“Now due to restrictions against mixing households here in the UK and our inability to travel home, myself and many other students risk being stuck alone in student accommodation.

The Government refused to stop flights for the last nine months of the pandemic, but as soon as Christmas comes they decide to lock out their own citizens with a few hours notice, which many of us think is very unfair.”

Amy Gallagher from Kildare works as a senior respiratory and sleep physiologist in London.

She decided back in September she wasn't going home for Christmas. 

"It was easier to accept I wasn't going home than having to deal with getting a notification that my flight was taking off but I wasn't on it again. That really made me feel homesick for the first time in four years of being away."

Ms Gallagher's job means she's around vulnerable people, as well as people who are potentially Covid positive. 

I have to be careful. I also don't have the luxury of working from home so I would have had to take two weeks off work and isolate before I even got to enjoy seeing anyone."

She is going to miss seeing all of her friends for their annual 12 pubs of Christmas. 

"I'm also extremely upset I can't see my family. I've seen them for two days this year and was really hoping we'd all be together at Christmas this year."

Niamh O’Neill, a Cork nurse working in London, has said she is likely to spend Christmas on her own this year.

Niamh O’Neill, a nurse from Mallow in Cork, had also been hoping to see her family this Christmas. She works on a Covid ward in south-east London.

"My plan had been to fly home on Christmas Eve, as I have done . . . for the past three years,” she told BBC 5 Live.

She is thinking of picking up extra shifts to pay for flights home next year, as she will be alone this Christmas.

"I’m just happy this Christmas that my family are safe in Ireland and, if that’s the price I have to pay – that I don’t get to spend this Christmas with them –then it’s a price I’m willing to take."