RTE presenter Darragh McCullough and his wife Aoife have been denied re-entry to the EU with their newborn baby Grace who was born via surrogate.
The Ear to the Ground broadcaster revealed his family are “stuck” amid a red-tape wrangle after trying to cross the border between North Cyprus and South Cyprus.
Little Grace was born by surrogacy in North Cyprus nearly three weeks ago after the couple feared they would never have a family following 16 years of marriage.
Delirious Darragh was expecting a seamless crossing over the Turkish/Greek Cypriot border with his wife and three-week-old baby daughter after making plans for a special homecoming to Ireland.
The trio had travelled to the border between North Cyprus and South Cyprus, which is part of the EU, on Thursday.
Co Meath farmer and broadcaster Darragh thought they had all the documents they needed to cross the border and start their journey home to Ireland.
But the family were left stunned at being refused entry back into the EU.
Darragh today spoke of his shock at being turned away at the United Nations buffer zone into the Republic of Cyprus from the self-declared Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, which is not internationally recognised but where EU legislation is suspended.
He said: “When we got to the border, the guards basically waved us away, and the taxi driver informed us that the laws had changed the day before and we needed more paperwork.
“We have to present more paperwork to the Turkish Interior Ministry, and there’s a national holiday here for the next couple of days, so we are basically holed up.”
Darragh also told Oliver Callan on RTE Radio 1 of his joy at becoming a father for the first time after daughter Grace was born in Cyprus to a surrogate from Ukraine.
He revealed that little Grace was born three weeks ago this Sunday and almost three weeks before her due date.
He said: “We got a call on a Sunday afternoon; we were at home making dinner, and we got the call saying the surrogate mother went into labour.
“We needed to book ourselves on to the next flight to Cyprus.
“The next day we were in Dublin Airport to get a direct flight to Paphos in the south of Cyprus.”
The RTE presenter said that due to commercial surrogacy being banned in the EU, they needed to make a far longer journey and cross borders to enter the northern part of Cyprus.
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After arriving at the hospital, the couple hurried to the room where their soon-to-be daughter was staying with a nanny.
He added: “Then there was a little baby called Grace, and we were fairly unceremoniously handed a bottle of baby formula and maybe congratulations in Turkish – I’m not sure.
“And then we were left to our own devices.”
Darragh and his wife are hopeful of returning home in the next ten days.
