Irish Country Hotels

Garryvoe Hotel announce their 'Golden Couple'

10 October 2011

Garryvoe Hotel Finds First Wedding Couple 50 years on

Neilus and Margaret Kidney of Carrigtwohill, who held their wedding reception in September, 1963 in the Garryvoe Hotel, East Cork, never thought they would win the chance to celebrate their Golden Jubilee at the same place they started their lives together. The couple have won the Garryvoe Hotels Golden Couple Competition, winning a big party for them and 50 of their closest friends and family to celebrate their Golden Wedding Anniversary.

Their daughter Caroline Dixey, who entered her parents into the competition said: “My mother Margaret O’Shea was a local girl from Ballycotton and she met her husband-to-be Neilus Kidney while working in Carrigtwohill. When I saw the Golden Couple competition on the Garryvoe Hotels Facebook page, I just knew I had to enter my parents, as they were the first couple to get married in the hotel on a sunny September day in 1963. If they won the competition, I thought it would be a wonderful opportunity to share and celebrate this great event with all the family together – back to where it all started.

“With a backdrop of the Star of the Sea Church in Ballycotton Bay and the lighthouse as a backdrop at the Garryvoe Hotel, who could have asked for a better setting? Parents, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, nieces and nephews attended from near and far and the stories of that day are still reminiscent. Now nearly 50 years later, they have 7 children, 15 grandchildren and 1 great grandchild little Kayla (aged 16 months).  Down through the years, threads of Garryvoe are still ever present, special occasions, birthdays, and their daughter’s weddings and of course the regular trips to Garryvoe beach on sunny Sunday afternoons,” she said.

Stephen Belton, Managing Director, The Garryvoe Hotel said: “We’re 50 years in business in 2013 and to celebrate this we launched a search called the Golden Couple competition. Entrants were asked to write a story on the theme ‘50 Years of Smiling’ and upload an image which represents this theme to go with it on our Facebook page.  We got some amazing entries but we were blown away by the story of Neilus and Margaret and how it all started for them in the Garryvoe Hotel and the four generations of their family down to their little Great Grandchild Kayla.

“The Golden Couple is just one of the competitions we are running to celebrate our 50 years in business in 2013.