A nurse who came home from Australia to help in the fight against COVID-19 says it was heartbreaking not being able to properly greet family after arriving home.
Amy Keane is now in self-isolation for two weeks before she begins work on the frontline.
She went to Australia in January with two friends - Ciara and Ruth - who had trained together in Dublin for four years.
After graduating in December 2018 as general nurses, they worked for a year - before deciding to head down under this January.
Amy with her friends Ciara and Ruth. Picture by Instagram/susankeoghnewsAmy told Newstalk Breakfast: "I wanted to work and travel in Australia for years - to be honest I can't remember when it wasn't a dream destination of mine."
We'd been planning and saving for this trip of a lifetime for months - we were organising our working holiday visas and our APA registration.
"Our hope for the year was to live in Sydney and work with a nursing agency for the first few months, so we could save and plan our travelling for the end of the year".
But she says all that changed with the coronavirus pandemic.
"When the virus got bad our hours started to decrease dramatically, the hospitals were preparing for the worst... so any non-emergency procedures were cancelled.
"Hospitals were re-deploying their own nursing staff - so that meant that there wasn't any work for us as an agency nurse."
"And then when we were talking to our families and friends back home, realising the number of cases that were just going up and up, we just couldn't sit around waiting - watching our colleagues struggle with this.
"We just had to help - and the best thing for us was to just go home".
They then contacted the On Call For Ireland initiative, which arranged for the women to come home.
"The amazing people working for this initiative had our flights booked and sourced, so we really had nothing to worry about".
They arrived back in Dublin Airport on Friday, which Amy says was a surreal experience.
"It was horrible... arriving to an empty Dublin arrivals hall, seeing our family at distance and not being able to run over and give them a hug was just heartbreaking really."
They are currently in self-isolation, but will be returning to work shortly.
Amy added: "We obviously are nervous to go back to work and after these two weeks hopefully we'll be able to help our colleagues.
"But we really are just so proud of all the healthcare professionals around Ireland and how our country is dealing with such a crisis here".
She also said she hopes to continue her Australian adventure soon.
"Hopefully when the international boarders open and every thing is safe here and around the world, I'll be on the first flight back".
