From Ireland to Wildwood: Mystery message in a bottle writer has been found
It took exactly 1,500 days, but on Friday morning, the message sender and the bottle finder finally found each other.
WILDWOOD, New Jersey -- It reads like a movie script: a woman writes a message in a bottle and sends it off to sea in Ireland.
A New Jersey man and his family found the message while picking up trash on the beach in Wildwood.
It took exactly 1,500 days, but on Friday morning, the message sender and the bottle finder finally found each other.
"Hi, how are you?" asks Frank Bolger, from his kitchen in Wildwood, NJ.
"I'm very well," says Aiofe Byrne, more than 3,000 miles away in Bray, Ireland. "I'm a bit in shock."
SEE ALSO: Family finds lost message in a bottle from Ireland along Jersey shore
"You are?" laughs Bolger. "We are in total shock over here!"
Bolger and his family found Byrne's message in a bottle last week, clearing garbage from the beach near 14th Street in Wildwood.
It reads: "Greetings from Ireland. I have thrown this bottle into the sea for someone to find another day. Maybe it's traveled down to Africa or to Iceland! I won't know if someone found this, but I hope it is found!"
The letter was signed: "Aoife."
Bolger was dying to know why she wrote the message in the first place.
"I am kind of obsessed, well, very interested in messages in bottles, to be honest," Byrne says.
When she first reached out to Bolger, he admits, he was a little skeptical.
"I emailed her back and said, 'Can you send me some pictures and some writing samples?'"
Once he got the proof, he was sold.
Byrne sent it to sea in Ireland on July 17, 2019. Four years and one month later, it washed up at the Jersey shore.
"It's one of the most Irish parts of Wildwood, North Wildwood, which is heavily Irish American," Bolger laughs, noting the irony.
Bolger's search for the sender went viral, making its way across the globe.
"Almost every station in Ireland is running it or called us," he says.
Finally, the mystery message writer came forward.
"I was shaking," Bolger says. "I couldn't believe it. I never thought we would find her."
A movie ending to the now-famous message in a bottle that traveled all the way from Ireland's Emerald shores to our Jersey shore, captivating the world along the way.
"The world is searching for something good," Bolger says, when asked why he thinks everyone was so invested in this story.
"We need good right now."
Bolger says when it's time to take a trip to Ireland, they already have a place to stay, with Byrne, and her father, Martin.
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