VALERIE NORTON AND SHANE GRIFFEY were married on March 19th in Riverchapel Church in Ballymoney, Co Wexford by Fr Patrick McGlynn, a former English teacher at St Michael’s College in Ailesbury Road, Dublin, who had taught the groom and many of his friends at the wedding. Their reception was held at the nearby Seafield Golf and Spa Hotel on the Wexford coast.
Valerie grew up in Booterstown and is the daughter of Carmel and Robin Norton. She has a sister Olwen and one brother, Graham. She attended Mount Anville School, and has a BA in French and Italian from Trinity College, Dublin. She is now manager of the Humanities Institute of Ireland at UCD.
Shane is the son of Mary and John Griffey of Dundrum, and has one sister and brother, Hilary and Ronan. After St Michael’s he studied business, worked in retail for many years and now works for his family’s distribution business.
They first met when they were 18 and again years later as guests at a wedding at Brook Lodge in Aughrim. It was something of an on-again off-again affair after that; they went out together, they broke up, they went out with other people, until three years later, when Shane phoned Valerie to say he’d made a terrible mistake. She was, indeed, the one. “At first I told him to take a running jump because I had been the one who’d been heartbroken,” says Valerie. Shane persisted, however. He phoned again several weeks later, and invited her to dinner. Eventually he proposed to her in the grounds of Brook Lodge, where they had first kissed.
Over 100 friends and family attended the wedding and luxuriated in the spa. On Saturday, a group of 40 or so headed to Sheehans pub in Blackrock and watched what was to become Ireland’s grand slam rugby victory in Cardiff. That kept the party going for another few days.
The couple went to Borneo and spent three weeks mostly backpacking and animal spotting – “not everyone packs leech-proof socks for their honeymoon,” says Valerie. They admit to being “animal nuts” and both work as volunteers for the DSPCA.