Proud grandparents Caroline Flanagan and Pat Flanagan from Derrylin were overcome with joy after they received the proud news that they are now the grandparents to two new babies that were born on the same day on opposites sides of the world.

In an extraordinary coincidence, Caroline and Pat’s daughter and son, Claire and Sean, welcomed healthy babies to the world on January 7, one in Canada and one in Australia.

The babies were born on the same day Irish time but the time difference between Australia and Canada means the newborns will have different birthdays.

Grandmother Caroline explained the birth coincidence to The Impartial Reporter: “The babies were born on the exact same day, January 7 Irish time. However, because of the time difference they have two different dates of birth in Vancouver and Perth.”

The countries of Canada and Australia have a sixteen-hour time difference. Ireland is eight hours ahead of Vancouver and Perth is eight hours ahead of Ireland.

The first baby to be born was little Holly Sturgeon on January 7 at 4.30am. Holly was born in Vancouver, Canada. She is firstborn to proud and excited parent’s construction engineer Claire (Caroline and Pat’s daughter) and University coordinator, Belfast man Antony Sturgeon.

“Claire moved to Canada two years ago initially wanting to travel,” said her mother Caroline. Holly’s parents met in Belfast at University and decided to travel to Canada together.

“Baby Holly was due to be born on December 30, 2018 but was in no rush to move” said her grandmother Caroline.

Baby Fionn Flanagan wasn’t long behind his big cousin Holly. He was born at 8am Australian time on January 7.

“Fionn wasn’t due until January 10 but was too excited to stay put,” said the grandmother. Baby Fionn didn’t give his parents much time to get everything together and therefore was born at home.

“The ambulance was called, and they were taken to hospital for a once over, but everything was 100 per cent.” Mrs Flanagan said.

Baby Fionn was born to loving parents Sean (Caroline and Pat’s son) and Catriona Flanagan and big sister Niamh who is 20 months old.

The couple have been living and working in Perth, Australia for ten years now, his father Sean is a construction engineer and his mother Derry girl Catriona works as a nurse. The couple met in Belfast when they were at University and moved away for work opportunities.

Mrs Flanagan told The Impartial Reporter: “This all happened on my first week of retirement! I was overcome with excitement for them all.”

Mrs Flanagan worked for BT for 24 years and retired on January 4. Caroline is travelling to Canada on January 26 to visit baby Holly. “I am so excited to see baby Holly, it will be great to see her and all the family again.” Mrs Flanagan said.

The grandmother also hopes to visit baby Fionn in Australia soon.