RTÉ PRESENTER DARRAGH McCullough, his wife and his baby born via surrogacy were turned away from the EU border while trying to return home from North Cyprus.

After 15 years of trying to start a family and having “exhausted” IVF, McCullough and his wife Aoife turned to surrogacy.

Speaking to Oliver Callan on RTÉ Radio One, the Ear to the Ground presenter remarked that “surrogacy wasn’t something we entered into lightly”.

He further remarked that he didn’t say anything about the surrogacy until around three months ago because “it prompts lots of uncomfortable conversations about the welfare of everybody involved in that process”.

North Cyprus

His daughter Grace was born by surrogacy nearly three weeks ago in a hospital in North Cyprus, but McCullough and his family were yesterday turned away from the border into South Cyprus which is in the EU.

McCullough said that he got a call that the surrogate mother had gone into labour and that they “needed to book the next flight to Cyprus”.

The next day, they began a long journey to the hospital in North Cyprus, which comprises the northern portion of the island of Cyprus and is only recognised by Turkey.

As McCullough puts it in his column with the Irish Independent: “The Turks invaded this part of the island back in the 1970s and have remained ever since, even though the international community refuses to acknowledge its existence.

“But that suited our requirements perfectly – a peaceful enclave on the fringes of the EU, where we could continue our surrogacy journey.”

While commercial surrogacy is illegal in the EU, it is allowed in North Cyprus, where EU legislation is suspended.

McCullough said he thought he had all the documentation needed to allow travel between North Cyprus and South Cyprus, but that he was informed by the Turkish border guards that more documentation would be needed.

“When we got to the border the guards basically waved us away and the taxi driver informed us that the laws had changed the day before and we need more paperwork,” said McCullough.

“We have to present more paperwork to the Turkish Interior Ministry and there’s a National holiday here for the next couple of days so we are basically holed up.”

He and Grace have had to undergo a DNA test, which will be processed in Ireland, and then the results will be sent back to North Cyprus.

Once that is in place, the Embassy in Cyprus will be able to issue an emergency travel certificate to allow him and his family in the southern part of Cyprus, which is in the EU.

McCullough is hopeful that they will be back in Ireland in around ten days but remarked that “there’s no guarantees”.

Meanwhile, McCullough said Grace is “doing great”, though there was a “bit of a fright” as she had jaundice.

“But thankfully all is good now,” said McCullough.

“The moment when I felt most emotional about it was when we first took her out in the pram to the street,” said McCullough. “That was just an image that we had dreamed of for a long time.”

‘Not straightforward’

McCullough remarked that part of him was resigned to not having a child, and added that the “surrogacy journey has not been straightforward because we are not there yet in terms of getting Grace home”.

The surrogate mother is from Ukraine and this is the second time she has been a surrogate mother.

“We plan to stay in contact and she knitted gorgeous little outfits for Grace,” said McCullough, “and I’m pretty comfortable with the relationship we have with her.”

He said the couple went to Ukraine because “a lot of other Irish couples had gone to the Ukraine” too.

McCullough explained in his column with the Irish Independent that “when the bombs started to rain on Kiev, the whole process shifted to northern Cyprus”.

Meanwhile, he told RTÉ that there were other Irish couples in North Cyprus for the same reason: “We landed here [in North Cyprus] in the dead of night and the next day we met another Irish couple in the same hospital with their baby, who had just been born via surrogacy.

“And yesterday, we were leaving the hospital and we met another couple from Kerry who have just welcomed their little baby, who coincidentally is also called Grace.”

He added that the commercial surrogacy is a “very tightly controlled process” and that the welfare of everybody involved in the process is “absolutely crucial”.

‘Legislation needs to catch up’

McCullough noted that there will be “more legal stuff to jump through” once they get back home to Ireland.

“We are going to have to apply through the courts for Aoife to have guardianship of Grace,” he said.

“The realities on the ground have leaped ahead of the legislation, and we really need the legislation to catch up.

“The laws have changed somewhat, but I think it hasn’t gone the full way in terms of what surrogate parents require.

“Aoife is taking unpaid leave because she’s not entitled to any paid maternity leave.”

When asked how much the whole process cost, McCullough remarked that you “won’t have a whole pile of change out of 100 grand”.

However, he remarked that it was “reassuringly expensive”.

“I felt that if you went for the cheapest option out there, you run the risk of the welfare not being as you would like it.”

He added that the “trickiest part of the process” has been the last two weeks and “trying to get home as quickly as possible” and “navigating your way through legalese”.

“I’ve told our story because I hope it illustrates for other couples out there who may be struggling to conceive that this is an option.

“It’s not for the faint hearted, but it is a real possibility out there.”

McCullough added that as a farmer, it is “the norm for a farm to be handed down from generation to generation”.

“There was always that little hole in the background.

“If we hadn’t succeeded in starting a family, it’s not that our lives would have been empty or a failure or anything like that.

“It was just a little gap in the background and now we’ve filled it.”