SUSAN QUINN AND TILAHUN MENGESHA were married in the registry office in Drogheda, and later celebrated their marriage with family and friends on May 3rd in the Glenview Hotel in the Glen of the Downs, Co Wicklow. Their friend Asfaw Feleke presided over a series of humanist blessings and readings and the bride’s cousins sang a medley of love songs.
The couple met in Ethiopia when Susan, a primary school teacher, was on career break from her job in Rutland Street School in Dublin’s inner city. She spent two years working on a teacher-training course on a VSO programme.
Susan is the daughter of Noeleen and Arthur Quinn from Blanchardstown, and her three sisters, Katherine, Helen and Anne-Marie, acted as bridesmaids. She went to school at the Dominican Convent on the Navan Road, studied arts at UCD and received her post-graduate teaching qualifications from Coláiste Mhuire in Marino. She is currently teaching sixth class in Rutland Street.
Tilahun comes from the northern Ethiopian city of Mekelle and he also had three sisters at the wedding – Gezu, Belaynesh and Lidia. His parents, Tsadkan and Zenebe Mengesha, are both deceased. He has a law degree from Mekelle University, and has a particular interest in humanitarian law. He is considering what post-graduate course will stand to him and allow him to practise in Ireland. Meanwhile, he is working in a restaurant in Dublin.
The couple moved to Ireland 18 months ago having discovered that they share a similar sense of humour and strong family connections. They both miss Ethiopia but returned for a visit last summer. Tilahun has made a number of Ethiopian friends in Ireland and their two families got on so well at the wedding that they are at ease in one another’s home places.
Their wedding celebration combined aspects of both cultures, including a traditional Ethiopian coffee ceremony as well as professional Ethiopian dancers. There was even a bit of ululating to be heard in the Glen of the Downs. (“Our friends had very sore shoulders the next day.”)
They live in Grand Canal Dock.