"Message in a bottle from Canadian couple discovered in Ireland after 13 years"

Message in a Bottle Reaches Ireland After 13 Years at Sea

In September 2012, a couple on a trip to Bell Island, off the coast of Newfoundland, placed a note in a bottle and set it adrift in the Atlantic.

“Anita and Brad’s day trip to Bell Island. Today, we enjoyed dinner, this bottle of wine and each other, at the edge of the island,” the message read. It included a request for whoever found it to call the number written below.

Thirteen years later, another couple, Kate and John Gay, came across the bottle on Scraggane Bay in County Kerry, on Ireland’s western coast. After reading the note, they raised a toast to Anita and Brad, wondering if they were still together.

They tried calling the number but received no response. Hoping to solve the mystery, they posted about their discovery on the Facebook page of Maharees Heritage and Conservation, the group responsible for the beach cleanup that led to the find.

The post quickly spread, and within hours, friends in Canada reached out to Anita and Brad Squires—now married with three children and still living in Newfoundland—to let them know their message had been found.

“The last 24 hours have been incredible—knowing so many people have been touched by this story,” Brad said during an interview with RTÉ radio’s *Morning Ireland*. “We were young and in love back then. Now, we’re older and still in love. It’s wonderful that this story has connected us with new friends, and we hope to visit Ireland soon.”

The couple, who had been together for a year when they sent the bottle, married in 2016.

Martha Farrell of the Maharees Conservation Association noted that the discovery has inspired other couples to share their own stories of sending messages in bottles across the ocean.