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Two Dublin kids ran away from home

Ended up in New York 24 hours later

By
PATRICK COOPER,
IrishCentral.com Staff Writer

Published Friday, August 20, 2010, 7:26 AM
Updated Friday, August 20, 2010, 7:32 AM

 

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Keith Byrne: having been released from the police station, safely home in Dublin, August 1985.
Keith Byrne: having been released from the police station, safely home in Dublin, August 1985

The amazing story of how two runaway Dublin kids jumped on a commuter train in Dublin for an adventure and ended up in New York a day later has finally been told.

A radio documentary by RTE, Ireland’s national station, traces how Keith Byrne (10) and Noel Murray (13) from Darndale, a tough Dublin suburb, escaped authorities in three countries back in 1985.

Keith recalled in  the interview to be broadcast today. “My mum said: ‘don’t go far, your dinner’s nearly ready,’ ” he recalled. “I said: ‘I won’t.’ ”

They jumped a commuter train  to the port of Dún Laoghaire and sneaked onto  a ferry bound for Holyhead in Wales.

From there they caught the train to London and connected with a subway train to Heathrow Airport.

Once there they asked a random  passenger where his plane was going and he told them New York.They told the ticket checker  and security their parents were behind them,  and boarded the Air India plane.

“The plane was only half full so no one came near us,” Keith recalls.

Amazingly,  just  two months earlier, an Air India jet had blown up off the southwest of Ireland, killing 329 people.

Byrne says he was  unable to eat a very hot Indian curry but watched  the James Bond film ‘A View to a Kill.’

Their journey came to an end when they left JFK airport and asked a cop the way “into town”.

They were taken to a police station and immediately became celebrities. Their exploits made the front page of the New York newspapers. Authorities were taking no chances and they were put in a hotel suite with five security guards.

“There was BLTs, chips, everything, fed us like lords. We loved it, said” said Byrne. Byrne is now 35 and Murray is 37.

Both still live in the same north Dublin suburb but they  have drifted apart.

Byrne says there is no way you could get away with such behavior now. “I don’t think there’d be any chance that you’d get away with it nowadays with everything that’s going on with the planes and the security that they have. They wouldn’t fall for that old trick of ‘my mam’s coming behind me’” said Byrne.

He said he still has his his sense of adventure. “I love travelling to different places and me and my partner go off on drives to Kilkenny and Carlow still and bring the kids off on walks around to experience the countryside.

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3 Comments

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Posted by mariabyrne on Aug 21, 2010, 09:47 AM EDT
Well this is my brother - and the story I think has been told extremely well - its the first time I have heard the tale in full length. P.s Kevin; the grass isnt always greener!
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Posted by Buffalobrave on Aug 20, 2010, 01:32 PM EDT
Those kids had 'balls' to do a thing like that. Reality TV doesn't even come close!
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Posted by kevinosullivan on Aug 20, 2010, 09:13 AM EDT
Too bad they never got to leave Darndale....
 


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