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Grandfather meets newborn grandson through a window in heartbreaking photo

The coronavirus pandemic kept this first-time grandfather in Ireland from holding his new grandson. Luckily, they still got to meet.
/ Source: Today

When his son was born in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic, a new dad in Ireland had no choice but to introduce his newborn to his grandfather through a window.

The sister of new dad Míchéal Gallachoir tweeted a photo of the heartbreaking moment, in which her and Míchéal's father is seen looking on at his first grandchild, Faolán, cradled in the arms of his adult son. In less than 24 hours, the photo been retweeted almost 65,000 times.

“Three generations of social distancing as my dad meets his grandson for the first time,” Míchéal's sister, Emma Gallachoir, wrote on Twitter alongside the photo.

The Gallachoirs live just outside Dublin. Míchéal told TODAY that his wife went into labor March 13 and his son was born March 14, just when health officials in Ireland started to urge social distancing countrywide.

“Our district nurse would come on to sterilize all our clothes that we wore to the hospital," he said.

After leaving the hospital, Gallachoir and his wife were advised not to come in contact with anyone. But Gallachoir’s father lives close to his son, so he decided to pop over Saturday to see the baby even though he couldn't touch him, according to a follow-up tweet from Emma. Gallachoir said he had been holding his son for a few minutes when his wife snapped the photo.

“Because we have no visitors, she posted it to relatives through WhatsApp and sent it to my sister,” he explained. “My sister posted in on Twitter, and we didn't think too much of it, really."

After the photo went viral, his sister shared an update on the family to Twitter.

“Baby Faolán is doing great and oblivious to his new fame,” she wrote. “My dad is also doing well ... he wouldn’t let me take a pic of him but he’s smiling! ... He is looking forward to holding the baby soon.”