HEDI GOTTHALMSEDER and Gearóid Ó Murchú were married in mid-May, first in a small bilingual ceremony in the registry office in Oranmore, Co Galway. A week later the festivities moved to Austria, to a small town on the border with Bavaria, where the couple exchanged vows in Irish at the parish church in Schaerding, with blessings in German, Irish and English.
Gearóid comes from Connemara and runs a screen print business in An Spidéal. He met Hedi in 2002 in Crete, while on a walking holiday. A boat which was to take a group of walkers from Sougia to Loutro, on the south coast, was cancelled because of high winds. Instead of a day’s walking, it turned into a singing session, and the Irish attracted a crowd, including several Austrians. Hedi joined in and the rest, says Gearóid, is history.
Over the next few years there were many visits back and forth between Ireland and Austria. In 2005, Hedi moved to Ireland. She now lives with Gearóid in Indreabhán and manages the retail side of his Gaeltacht business, having become reasonably fluent in Irish.
Last year they decided that it was “time to tie the knot and make things official”. But where? “Ireland would be great for the Austrians, but how many would travel? Austria would certainly appeal to the Irish – because the Irish are never slow to opt for a weekend away. .. Eventually, cost and bureaucracy decided it for us: Austria would be a lot cheaper, but as neither of us were actually living in Austria the registry office system would be too complicated. So we came up with a wedding in two parts,” explains Gearóid.
The couple rented a 15th-century tower house in Schaerding to serve as "An Nead", their HQ and party house. The blessing ceremony was held in the parish church, with readings and songs from family and friends including Gearóid's daughter, Clíodhna, singing Má thiteann tú i ngrá liomby John Spillane.
After the church ceremony a crowd of about 120, many dressed in traditional Austrian garb, were bussed to the Rahaberghof, a converted farm about eight kilometres away. The Austrian and Irish guests got to know each other in a sunny courtyard over glasses of Sekt laced with various fruit juices. “There was also some energetic Austrian accordion music played by Hedi’s brother-in-law, Franz,” says Gearóid. In the field outside, the Austrian children played the Irish children in a soccer friendly. The Irish won.
Later, the guests were treated to a buffet dinner upstairs in the converted barn and “an extravaganza” of Austrian cakes. They danced into the early hours.
There were two surprises on the night. “One was a local folk music and dance group which mysteriously appeared to entertain us, insisting on audience participation – a present from Hedi’s family. This group enjoyed the festivities so much that they stayed until the end of the night,” says Gearóid.
The second surprise came when Gearóid announced that they were flying to Crete for their honeymoon. Hedi thought they were flying back to Ireland on the Monday.
“The whole wedding was a great success,” says Gearóid. “The Irish really enjoyed Austria. The Austrians enjoyed their Irish experience, and the quiet picturesque town of Schaerding will probably never be the same again. Ní bheidh a leithéid arís ann.”