VOWS:Emily Murphy Lee and Sham Riordan were married on January 2nd in St Bridget's church in Crosshaven, Co Cork, by Fr Michael (Mac) Mccarthy of Bantry. Afterwards, the gathering of 120 friends and family members made their way to the Royal Cork Yacht Club, said to be the oldest yacht club in the world and an appropriate spot for two people who share a love of the sea and of sailing. Music was provided in both church and club by traditional singers Jimmy Crowley and "rear admiral" Dave Hennessy.
The couple met on Inishbofin last May – Emily was visiting during the island’s “half-marathon” and Sham had sailed in for the day. They got talking outside Gerry Murray’s well-known pub.
Emily is the daughter of the poet Richard Murphy, and grew up between Cleggan and Inishbofin. A former TV producer, restaurateur and food writer, she has her own chocolate-making company in South Africa, where she has lived for the past 15 years. By happy coincidence, one of Sham’s five grown-up children lives with her young family in Plettenberg Bay, not far away from Knysna, where the couple are now living with Emily’s two children. Their house overlooks a lagoon in the region known as the Garden Route.
Emily has been making artisan chocolates called Chocolats Marionnettes for the past three years and they are available in South Africa, the UK, the UAE and, most recently, in Ireland – in Skibbereen and Clonakilty. The couple hope to sell Wonki Ware pottery from South Africa (a favourite of Nigella Lawson’s) and sell it from Myrtleville House, Sham’s family home on the Cork coast, which they plan to visit two or three times a year.