MIRIAM LORD'S WEEK:CONGRATULATIONS to Ciara Conway, Labour TD for Waterford, who became engaged this week and is sporting a fabulous aquamarine ring.

Ciara’s intended popped the question on Dún Laoghaire pier just before midnight, to a chorus of cheers from French and Spanish students in the bandstand.

Gary Honer – he is parliamentary assistant to Deputy Eric Byrne – and Ciara got together at last year’s Tom Johnston Summer School in Kilkenny. The couple headed off for a walk on the pier after Tuesday’s late sitting of the Dáil.

“I wasn’t expecting it, but I got a bit suspicious when it started to belt rain and Gary wouldn’t go back to the car” says Ciara. “He made me sit on a capstan and then went down on one knee in the pouring rain.”

Ciara’s 10-year-old daughter Avea-May was in on the plot – Gary, who is from Crumlin, had asked for her permission to marry her mum. Avea-May is proudly announcing their engagement in today’s social and personal column.

Party leader Eamon Gilmore congratulated the happy couple on Thursday at Labour’s end-of-term barbecue. He said he was doubly delighted because they got engaged in his constituency.

The venue is already booked and it will be a Christmas wedding in Dungarvan, but not until 2013.