A Connecticut woman has retrieved half of her heart after leaving it in Ireland 26 years ago.

In 1990, 29-year-old Laurie McGrath buried half of a golden heart necklace with two interlocking halves that was given to her by her then-boyfriend Bill McGrath, with the intent that they would both go to Ireland to dig it up some day.

The now-married East Lyme couple recently flew to Dublin for their 25th wedding anniversary and travelled to the cemetery in Castletownroche, where the pendant was buried.

They dug near a gravestone and found the plastic bag with part of the pendant, inscribed with the words "best friends".

Mrs McGrath told The Day that she and her husband cried and could not believe they had found the pendant after so many years.

PA Media