Grieving Donegal father scammed out of €600 for Taylor Swift tickets

Louise Walsh

A grieving Donegal father has told how he was scammed out of €600 while trying to buy Taylor Swift concert tickets for his young daughters, who lost their teenage brother to cancer two years ago.

Wade McGinley is now appealing to anyone with spare 'gold dust' tickets to sell them to him, so he can see his daughters' faces light up if he can make their dreams come true.

The Buncrana father-of-seven said the family has been through a difficult few years after his son Rocco died from a rare brain tumour on February 21st, 2022, at just 15 years of age.

Mr McGinley thought he would fork out and treat his young 'Swiftie' daughters Winter Lily (11), Arya (9) and Bodhi (8) to tickets to Taylor Swift when he saw them advertised for sale, but unfortunately he fell foul of scammers.

"Rocco would be 17 in August and there isn't a day that goes by when we struggle to cope," he said.

"He fought so hard and we even brought him to America for treatment, which worked for a while, but on Christmas Day, 2022, he deteriorated rapidly. When he passed away, the Northern Lights came out in Donegal and were stunning.

"He was such a character, we used to call him The Joker. He asked Make A Wish for a cinema in his house, and they were able to grant him that wish as well as a Pug Puppy called Luna, who was unfortunately hit by a car and died just before Rocco's first anniversary of his death.

"During that time, we spent a lot of time in Dublin and Aoibheann's Pink Tie and the Gavin Glynn Foundation did so much for us. We didn't even have to think about accommodation or anything like that - they took that worry from us so we could concentrate on Rocco.

"My girls went through so much at the time, when we were in hospital and in America, and they are all mad Swifties, especially Arya. She has Taylor on the TV, on the radio, on the smart speaker, in the car, absolutely everywhere and has always asked to go and see her.

"When the tickets first came out, we were a bit too preoccupied. It wasn't a good time, and so we didn't try and get them. However, about six weeks ago I saw tickets for sale and I thought, I'm going to treat my wee girls."

Mr McGinley added:"It all looked fine, and I was sent a link which I was a bit dubious of as I hit the send button. When I looked again, everything had disappeared, and I couldn't make contact with the sellers. It cost me €600.

"PayPal said I should contact the bank which is still looking into it. In the meantime, my little one is still asking are we going to Taylor Swift and it's getting a bit close now. I have told her that we haven't got tickets.

"But to see their little faces light up after everything they have been through would make my day and their dreams come true so if anyone has any tickets that they can't use and are selling them, I'll gladly take them off their hands."