Ireland’s first baby of 2016 was born at just eleven seconds past midnight at University Hospital Limerick. Baby Kieran Patrick Gibbons took nearly two whole days to arrive revealed mother Jennifer O’Neill. “It started at 1am on Wednesday morning and it finished up at 11 seconds past midnight today,” she said. Baby Kieran weighed 8 pounds 3 ounces.
“We’re thrilled, absolutely delighted,” said Ms O’Neill from Dooradoyle in Limerick city who is a practising pharmacy technician at Robert’s Pharmacy on O’Connell Street, Limerick. She added that proud father Mark Gibbons was “gone home to have a rest”. “He was due on New Year’s Day, so he kept to that,” she laughed.
Bridget McCormack, Assistant Director of Midwifery, University Maternity Hospital Limerick, said: “It is a special day. Most days here are great days, but it is really lovely for the first New Year’s baby to be born in our hospital.”
Little Kieran was closely followed by baby Gabriella Doncova, who was born at 21 seconds past midnight, in Dublin’s Holles St hospital and weighs 8 pounds 14 ounces.