Meath GAA secretary home after 52-hour journey from Dubai

Hayestown man and Meath GAA County Secretary Ciaran Flynn has returned safely to Ireland after a dramatic 52-hour journey home from Dubai following missile alerts that disrupted flights across the region last weekend.

Ciaran arrived back in Ireland yesterday morning after a complex journey involving a bus transfer across the UAE-Oman border, an overnight hotel stay, and connecting flights via Muscat and Cairo.

“We left Dubai at about 5am on Thursday morning and it ended up taking around 52 hours to get home,” he said.

One final delay came in Cairo when a technical issue forced the aircraft to abort take-off.

“The nose alignment or the wheel was out of sync and it started rattling like you were driving an old golf buggy,” he explained.

“The pilot had to abort the take-off and we were sitting there for about four or five hours while they fixed it.”

Despite the long journey, the county secretary said it was a relief to arrive back in Ireland, where his wife Rachel collected him and his dad Francis at Dublin Airport.

The Navan man however, appeared to take the entire ordeal largely in his stride.

“If you knew you were definitely going to get home eventually, you could have just waited it out, Dubai was operating as normal, we felt really safe," he said.

The secondary school teacher had travelled to the Middle East last week to officiate at the GAA’s Senior Hurling League finals, accompanied by two other referees. His father Francis had travelled with him as a guest and the pair spent time sightseeing before the competition began.

The competition concluded on Saturday, but just minutes after the final whistle events took an unexpected turn. Ciaran said there was a sudden silence overhead followed by a loud bang, prompting many people to run into the stadium as trophy presentations were quickly wrapped up before officials and players left the venue.

“We were due to fly home around half two that afternoon,” he previously told the Meath Chronicle. “But just after the competition ended we began to hear the distance and the clatter of bangs. Around midnight on Saturday all our phones went insane with emergency broadcasts.”

The alert, issued by the UAE Ministry of Interior, advised residents and visitors to seek shelter indoors due to incoming missiles.

Staying on the 25th floor of his hotel, Ciaran his father and other guests made their way to the lobby as a precaution while explosions were intermittently heard overhead.

“You could hear them, the clatter of them,” he said. “After about an hour or two it settled and we went back upstairs, but there was more during the night and again into the morning.”

He described the sounds as similar to loud fireworks as missiles were intercepted overhead. Smoke was later visible from a strike on a warehouse approximately ten miles away, and a fire was also reported at the Fairmont Hotel in the wider area, though there were no reports of fatalities.

Flights were quickly affected, leaving many passengers stranded.

Ciaran and his colleagues remained in their hotel while awaiting updates from authorities, though he said Dubai itself remained largely open during the week.

“We were just riding it out and going with the flow,” he said. “Dubai was fully open the whole time we were there.”

Despite the disruption, Flynn said the experience would not put him off returning to the Middle East.

“I’d go back to Dubai in a heartbeat,” he said. “It’s an unbelievable place ...the safety, the cleanliness and the people are so pleasant.”