THE four children came first tearing through the immigration barrier at Dublin Airport yesterday afternoon to hug their fathers for the first time in 614 days.
Three minutes later came the wives, Ismet Herenda and Fadila Plakalo. Their husbands had waited 20 months in Dublin and then another 10 minutes at the barrier. Ismet's husband, Faruk, supported by crutches, cried just before and again just after they arrived.
Two friends each had cam corders at the ready in the arrivals area to catch the moment when the families emerged. One of them, who arrived with Faruk Herenda and Behudin Plakalo in May 1994, had pieces of orthopaedic metal sticking out of his hip through his trousers. He was injured by a shell on the front line.
For Faruk and Behudin, the two women and four children on the aircraft were the most important people in the world. After they were evacuated from Gorazde in Bosnia in April 1994, they thought their families would join them in a week. Then the siege worsened and they were trapped.
Twenty months late, on December 30th last, the two women and their children left Gorazde on the first bus for almost two years to Sarajevo. There, two weeks ago, they told The Irish Times that the day they arrived in Dublin would become a second wedding anniversary.
In Dublin the same day, the two men had spoken of their excitement at the thought that their families were finally coming to them and their fear that at the last minute something might go wrong.
It didn't. Fadila and Ismet spent 12 days in Sarajevo awaiting permission to travel to Zagreb. Twenty two hours in a bus with their children, who got sick, brought them to the Croatian capital. They left Zagreb at 8 a.m. yesterday for Amsterdam and finally Dublin.
Fadila and Behudin said they, would try to return to Gorazde. "Our home is still there, and a lot of relatives and friends."
Faruk has been living in a Salvation Army hostel since his arrival Behudin lived at Cherry Orchard Hospital. Now the two families will get houses the Plakalos in Blanchardstown, the Herendas in a location yet to be decided. They receive the same welfare entitlements as Irish people. Some 550 Bosnian refugees have been admitted to the State since 1992.
Ten minutes after arriving, Ismet gave a look that said she found it hard to find the right words. "It's like a dream to be able to see my husband," she said through a translator. "I am very happy." And no, she knows little about Ireland, except that she and her children are here now and so is her husband.