Journey from Oz to find my father
All I know is he’s 56, from Co. Meath, and he met my mother for one night in Scruffy Murphy’s in Sydney 20 years ago, says his daughter Ella Lanigan
A TEENAGE girl is set to defy all sorts of Covid regulations and fly halfway around the world in a desperate bid to track down her Irish father.
Ella Lanigan – a 19-year-old tennis coach from Sydney, Australia – knows just three things about her biological dad: he’s supposedly called Andy, he is 56 years old and is a Meath man.
‘I’m desperate to get closure on this,’ Ella revealed. ‘He met my mum Melissa Lanigan in a Sydney bar called Scruffy Murphy’s in 2001, they had a one night stand and I was the result!’
Scruffy Murphy’s is a latenight Irish bar in the centre of Sydney’s Central Business Dis
‘I just want him to know I exist’
trict that is frequented by Irish and UK ex-pats, as well as locals looking for a late beer.
Ella said: ‘My mum did try and track him down at the time but with such little information and a lot less social media channels she had no luck, so now that I am old enough I am taking up the search.
‘I think I have my head around every possibility, I don’t mind if he is alive or dead, rich or poor, I just want him to know I exist.
‘Of course he could have lied about his details but Mum is confident he didn’t. She is certain he is who he said he was.’
Ella is only too well aware her arrival on the scene could rock the boat in her dad’s current life, but she is keen to avoid any such issue.
‘I want my father to know that I assume he has his whole life and family set up and in no way am I trying to intrude on that,’ she said. ‘All I want is for him to know he has a daughter and if he’s willing, to get to know me a little more then I’ll fly over in a heartbeat Covid restrictions or no Covid restrictions.’
Growing up without her father was tough for Ella who admitted:
‘The absence of a male figure in the house has always been difficult for me,
‘I used to always be confused as to why everyone else had a dad, but I didn’t. When it got to Father’s Day every year, my school friends would make Father’s Day cards, but I would never have someone to make one for.
‘I do frequent research but after posting to a Facebook group, called Meath Family History, I have received so many replies I am optimistic things will work out. He’s in an age group that probably doesn’t do social media as much as my generation, but somebody might be able to make the link for me.
‘I currently work as a tennis coach and am doing a course to receive the qualification. I am also starting university next year, studying sports management and event management. So hopefully if we do meet he’ll be proud of me.
‘I have the red hair of an Irish woman and I’m told I look more like him than mum, so hopefully the pics of my mum as she was when I was a baby and when Andy met her will jog someone’s thinking.’