Seen on Faceache and redeployed here.
Two Dublin boys left home to play before dinner.
The next time their parents saw them...
They were returning from New York.
In August 1985, ten-year-old Keith Byrne’s mother told him not to go far because dinner was nearly ready.
Keith met his 13-year-old friend, Noel Murray, and the two boys began an adventure so unbelievable that even Margaret Thatcher reportedly questioned whether it had really happened.
They had no passports.
No tickets.
Almost no money.
But Keith had one dream.
He wanted to travel to America and meet B.A. Baracus from The A-Team.
The boys boarded a DART train without paying and travelled from their Dublin neighbourhood to Dún Laoghaire. From there, they slipped onto a ferry to Holyhead, avoided ticket inspectors and caught another train across Britain.
By the time they reached London, they had only a few coins collected from public fountains.
Most children would have turned around.
Keith and Noel went to Heathrow Airport.
They asked a stranger where he was travelling.
“New York,” he answered.
Perfect.
The boys followed passengers toward an Air India flight and told staff that their parents were walking behind them. Somehow, nobody demanded their documents, and the two children boarded a Boeing 747 bound for America.
During the flight, they watched the James Bond film A View to a Kill. They were also served an Indian curry that Keith later remembered as far too spicy.
“The plane was only half full, so no one came near us.”
Hours later, they landed at JFK Airport.
When an official became suspicious, the boys ran. They wandered through the airport before eventually heading outside, amazed by New York’s yellow taxis and enormous buildings.
A police officer stopped them and asked where they were going.
They claimed they were meeting their mother in the city.
After more questions, the truth finally came out.
They were alone.
The boys were taken to a police station while authorities contacted Ireland, Britain and their terrified families. Because an Air India aircraft had been bombed only weeks earlier, officials carefully investigated whether their journey had any dangerous motive.
It did not.
They were simply two children looking for B.A. Baracus.
Air India placed them in a guarded suite at a five-star hotel, where they were given movies, McDonald’s and more food than they could eat.
“They fed us like lords. We loved it.”
Their guards even took them sightseeing and bought them “I Love New York” shirts before they were flown home to an enormous crowd of reporters.