EILEEN GAVIN AND FERGAL ARMSTRONG gathered 30 family members around them for their intimate wedding in the Merrion Hotel in Dublin on April 17th. The civil ceremony was performed by Myles Kane, registrar of marriages, in the Wellington Room overlooking Government Buildings.
The following evening they had a party for a wider circle of friends in the Odeon Bar on Harcourt Street.
Eileen teaches junior infants at St Lawrence School in Kilmacud, and met Fergal, a hurler with Kilmacud Crokes, through a colleague and mutual friend.
She grew up in Foxrock with two sisters and one brother, and is the daughter of Austin and Mary Gavin. She attended Muckross College in Donnybrook and has a BEd from the Froebel College of Education in Blackrock.
Fergal is the son of Tom and Carmel Armstrong of Blackrock, Co Dublin, and has two brothers and one sister. He attended Coláiste Íosagáin in Stillorgan, and graduated from UCD with a BSc in Economics and Finance and from the Smurfit Graduate Business School with an MA in quantitative finance. He works at AIB headquarters in Ballsbridge.
The pair became engaged last summer in the middle of a French vineyard. It wasn’t just any old vineyard, but one belonging to one of Eileen’s oldest friends, Neasa Corish Miquel, and her husband Laurent. Neasa and Eileen were au pairs together at the age of 17, when Neasa fell in love with one of the local vigneron’s sons. Years later, she married him. Thus the wedding supper included a selection of award-winning wines from Laurent Miquel: a Viognier, St Chinian, Faugères and Syrah. Special cheeses were served to match.
After a weekend of partying in Dublin, the couple went to New York for a week, which included a visit to the new Yankee Stadium for a pre-season baseball game. They planned to continue their honeymoon in Mexico during the summer holidays, but are now considering alternatives.