Dubliner Brian Finnegan, with wife Rebecca and daughter Briana, received his Aussie citizenship on Australia Day in Hobart.

His grandfather fought for Australia at Gallipoli during WWI, and his great- grandfather served as a member of parliament for Bourke in NSW, but it was only last month that Dubliner Brian Finnegan finally received his own Australian citizenship.

The Finnegan family’s amazing Irish Australian story came full circle in Hobart on February 26 when Brian formally became an Aussie citizen, with his wife Rebecca and daughter Briana proudly looking on.

The Clontarf native, who has lived in Australia for the last four years, achieved a lifelong dream last year when he opened up his own barbershop in Hobart, thus following in the footsteps of both his father and his grandfather who were both barbers.

The Finnegan family originally hailed from rural NSW, but Brian’s grandfather moved to Ireland after the war to start a barbershop in Inchicore.

He then went on to establish the well-known Waldorf Barbers on Westmoreland Street in Dublin city centre, a shop in which Brian’s father Liam and sister Linda still work.

It was in Inchicore that Brian’s father Liam learned the family business, and where Brian himself performed his first haircut at the age of seven.

Now the Finnegan story had come full circle, with little Briana the next Finnegan in line to learn the ropes of the family business.

“My family were all originally from New South Wales, so it was always a dream of mine to come back to Australia,” Finnegan said.

“I was on a working holiday in 2003 and I was out for a few beers in Canberra when I met Rebecca.We returned to Ireland in 2004 and stayed a couple of years.”

After a couple of years spent in that rain, Brian and Rebecca finally decided to up roots and return to the sunnier climes of Australia, setting up home in Hobart.

Now, it seems, there’s no turning back.