Irish man given ultimate surprise when daughter returns home with grandson

An Irish grandfather has gotten the surprise of a lifetime after his daughter, who lives in Australia, arrived at his work with her three-month-old son that he was yet to meet.

Elaine Dunwoody gave birth to Nathan three months ago and returned to Ireland last week to serve out the remainder of her maternity leave.

With potential passport problems for the newborn, she decided against telling her father in case he got his hopes up.

"We'd had trouble sorting a passport for Nathan, so he didn't think I'd be able to get back," Ms Dunwoody told the Irish Daily Mirror.

Once the passport had come through though, Ms Dunwoody decided to surprise her father with the help of his colleagues at the bar where he works.

Elphin Bar staff helped her keep the surprise a secret and filmed his incredibly emotional reaction to his daughter's homecoming with her son in tow.

"I've never seen my dad cry, he's usually as hard as nails," Ms Dunwoody said.

"He was so shocked that they had to give him the rest of the day off work."