Back in January, Munster Rugby's Billy Holland and his wife Lanlih Keane broke the nation's hearts in an interview with Ryan Tubridy on the Late Late Show where they discussed their baby daughter Emmeline, who sadly died last year.
Emmeline was born with a heart defect and passed away after a six month journey, just days after having an operation on her heart. Billy and Lanlih set up the Emmeline Holland fund, "Brave Like Emmeline" to raise money for Our Lady's Children's Hospital, Crumlin, Cork University Hospital's Children's Wards, and Ronald McDonald House, and at the time of going on the Late Late, the appeal had been massive success, raising over €300,000. A couple of months later and the fund now sits at an incredible €550,000.
On last night's Late Late Show, the couple appeared again to thank the public for their incredible generosity and to share bit of personal news of their own - the birth of their baby boy Matthew.
Earlier in the week, amidst all of the bad news surrounding the coronavirus pandemic, there was just some genuinely good news when Billy Holland tweeted about the birth of their son, "our gift from Emmeline".
Matthew Conor Holland, our gift from Emmeline. So proud of my wonderful wife Lanlih 💙❤️ pic.twitter.com/YSYUuHk5EZ
— Billy Holland (@billyholland) March 15, 2020
Last night, Billy and Lanlih spoke to Ryan via Skype from their home and introduced the country to Matthew, and wanted to thank the many, many people who have donated Emmeline's fund so far.
.@BillyHolland and @Lanlih Keane introduce Ryan to their new arrival Matthew and talk about the incredible generosity of the Irish public.#LateLate pic.twitter.com/21BmBvAJml
— The Late Late Show (@RTELateLateShow) March 20, 2020
We all needed a story like this right now.
