Carol Ní Dhochartaigh and Colin Mac Eoin were married at the Star of the Sea Church, Cornboy, Ballina, Co Mayo by Fr Michael Harrison and Fr Seamus Donohoe – the latter had married the groom’s parents, Mary and Sean Mac Eoin.
The bride grew up with two sisters and a brother in Ceathú Thidhg, a Gaeltacht area in north-west Mayo. She later attended Mary Immaculate College in Limerick, where she qualified with a BA in education. Her love of Irish continues to inform her role as deputy principal of the mixed, multi-denominational Gaelscoil Riabhach in Loughrea, Co Galway, where she teaches junior infants.
The groom, from Ballinalee, Co Longford, also has two sisters and a brother. He is the grand-nephew of Sean Mac Eoin, minister for defence and justice in the early 1950s, whose best man was Michael Collins. Having studied medicine at NUI Galway, Colin is currently in the second year of his general practice training.
The couple met in Galway on an evening that got off to a bad start. First, Carol’s neighbour called to say she had reversed into her car. Then she waited for more than an hour at an agreed meeting point for a friend who never showed up. When she was about to hotfoot it home, her errant friend collected her, and introduced her to Colin. All was forgiven. They became engaged in March 2006, in New York’s Central Park. The trip was a surprise organised by Colin, who drove Carol to Shannon Airport under the impression that they were there to collect a friend.
They were married on New Year’s Eve and afterwards, the gathering of 170 guests repaired to the 15th-century Belleek Castle on the banks of the River Moy. As befits a family from Ceathú Thidhg, the bride’s father, Christopher, made his speech as Gaeilge and gave the groom an Irish blessing. Carol’s mother, Mary Kate, who died in 2004, was remembered throughout the day.
The couple, now living in Galway, set off on a South American adventure that included hang gliding in Rio de Janiero, and white water rafting and horse riding in Argentina.
