Heartwarming Northern Ireland kindness amid the pain of separation

New hastily introduced regulations banning travel outside of London and south east England, as well as Scottish government moves to effectively shut Scotland off from the rest of the UK, have left thousands of people separated from their loved ones this Christmas.

However, the crisis has also been an opportunity for the Northern Ireland public to demonstrate some of their legendary goodwill to all men...and women.

Andrea Watt was devastated when she realised her 82-year-old father in Holywood, Co Down faced his first ever Christmas alone.

Unable to travel from her adopted home in Aberdeenshire with her husband and two children, she reached out through a community website and, with the help of Coleraine-born actress Bronagh Waugh, has been overjoyed at the response.

“Bronagh put something on Twitter about her 81-year-old mother-in-law – asking how do you explain that you are not going to be there for Christmas.

“It struck a chord and I just replied saying my dad was going to be on his own. So she retweeted this to her 122,000 Twitter followers and within moments I was getting messages from people in the Holywood area and beyond.

“I am absolutely overhelmed. I’ve people back in Northern Ireland getting in touch saying ‘let me do shopping’ and ‘let me take you dad up a dinner,’” she said.

“We are going to be separated at Christmas for the first time ever – my dad has never been on his own at Christmas in his whole life – so that is upsetting. But we’ve now had this little gem of fabulous kindness.

Dad Jim Whiteside has lived alone since his wife died in 2012.

“We usually see my father every couple of months. We were over in October to see him for the first time since the lockdown earlier this year. I am thirty years away but we have always gone back two or three times a year,” she said.

“He is on his own but we are very fortunate to have these fabulous people who go in and look after him on a daily basis, to whom we are eternally grateful. They are a fantastic team and have been there right throughout lockdown.

“The NHS staff are amazing but the carers have also carried on regardless, and on Christmas Day and Boxing Day he will still get his visits,” Andrea added.

Andrea said Holywood Golf Club is going to deliver a meal and that a number of other business owners in the town have also offered similar support.

On the back of her initial success, Bronagh Waugh was able to use Twitter to put a number of other families in touch with people willing to visit their isolated relatives.

In response to Andrea tweeting her good news about the help offers, Bronagh Waugh replied: “Heart FULL! Thank you Twitter, you are wonderful sometimes. And huge thanks to all the gorgeous, kind people who have offered to help Andrea’s Daddy. Yis are powerful.”