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Holiday blow as former daily editor loses passport in Dublin

Peter Sands

A well-known journalism trainer and former daily editor is set to miss out on a family trip this weekend after losing his passport while working in Dublin.

Newspaper consultant Peter Sands, left, lost the passport between Dublin airport and the city centre and made an appeal in the Irish Independent to find it, offering a reward for its return.

He told the title that he was due to go on a family trip on Saturday but would be unable to without locating his passport.

While in Dublin, Peter, who runs Sands Media Services Ltd, went to the offices of the Irish Independent for a meeting about Independent News and Media’s editorial graduate training programme, which starts in July.

He told the Independent that finding the passport was “a long shot” but he was “desperate”.

Tweeting about the incident, Peter wrote: “British passport lost in Dublin on Friday. Probably in back of airport taxi. Need it for flight this week.”

Peter, who previously edited the Northern Echo, has applied for an emergency passport but the Home Office have told him it will take seven days to receive one, so it will not arrive in time for Saturday.

He had contacted the taxi firm which took him back to the airport, who say they have not found the passport and the office where his meeting was held has also been searched.

9 comments

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  • May 15, 2015 at 7:39 am
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    I lost my car keys the other day but I’ve now found them. Fortunately I have a spare set as well.

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  • May 15, 2015 at 8:11 am
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    I can’t decide whether to go downstairs and make myself breakfast or turn over and have another snooze.

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  • May 15, 2015 at 10:20 am
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    I lost interest in this when I realised it wasn’t a story . . . it’s here because?

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  • May 15, 2015 at 10:56 am
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    ….it’s here because it’s Peter Sands, who must have trained everyone in this industry at some time by now, & he told them about it. That Is All.
    Mind, he’s a great bloke

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  • May 15, 2015 at 2:58 pm
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    Not a story? I’m looking forward to the follow up…

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  • May 17, 2015 at 8:00 pm
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    To make matters worse, we’re not even told the family’s destination. Oh, the agony of not knowing! I feel utterly cheated that it wasn’t included in the “story”. Then again, the original piece doesn’t mention it, either. Mind you, it does tell us that Peter “has applied for an emergency airport”. Hmmm, good luck with that! Appalling slide of standards all round. What is the industry coming to? Wasn’t like this in my day, etc, etc . . .

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  • May 19, 2015 at 8:49 pm
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    As a conclusion to the non-story, the passport was found (thank you Dublin airport police) and a new one arrived in time too. Happy ending all round. It was never a story of course … it was just an appeal on the Irish Independent’s website (which paid off). Thanks to all those who helped.

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