I applied for my passport for very sentimental reasons. My Dad has became very ill during Covid, and we had been told he would not recover. As a family we all did what big Irish families do and all took turns to make sure someone was with him all the time, Last Rites with the nuns etc …..

During the times I was with him,  and as a way keeping his spirits up, and mine to be honest,  we planned a road trip home for him.

And using an old Hertz road map, you know the ones you used to be given when you hired a car in Ireland, we set about planning this epic trip with a pink highlighter pen – needs must and all that, tracking the route we’d take and circling where we’d stay

We planned this trip over weeks, never really believing for one minute that we would ever get to take it together. We planned to stay in all the best hotels, driving from the East to West Coasts, to Mayo to see Mom’s family and then long the Wild Atlantic Way and down to Cork, where Dad is from.

And so it was, this amazing, fanciful, not really going to ever happen, grand road trip.

And then…. he got better !

So, I applied for my Irish passport so that I could take my Dad on the trip we never thought we’d take and in September 2021 we did it, two parents and nun and three wheel chairs !!!!

Thanks for letting me share this story. Dad passed away in August this year and that was his last trip home and I will be forever grateful for it