Love in Ireland and in the time of Covid PART 2
WHAT A WHIRLWIND. 2021 WAS ANYTHING BUT PREDICTABLE. I flew into lockdown in Ireland to be with my partner and we weren’t allowed to dine indoors for eight months. Outdoor dining does not sit well with Ireland’s climate! This meant we spent a significant amount of time just the two of us at home. It definitely was a test for us and one we passed with flying colours. We got engaged and married this year. As anyone who has planned a wedding during a pandemic will tell you, flexibility and expecting the unexpected is the key. We decided we didn’t want a long engagement and booked to have our wedding in September, while the weather was still reasonably ok. As I’m a foreigner, there were extra hurdles to go through to get our marriage licence. The Health Service Executive (HSE) had also been hacked and the community 16 | THE IRISH SCENE
BY SANDRA BAHBAH
services department was inundated with couples trying to reschedule their weddings, once more restrictions began to lift. Everything was down to the wire and we knew, even to the day of the wedding, anything could happen. Our biggest concern, some may say oddly, was not being able to have our first dance. It was only a week before our wedding that it was announced people could dance at ceremonies. We were overjoyed, having opted for a smaller wedding due to potential capacity limits and not having my family in attendance. We felt that a wedding with no dancing allowed would just ruin the atmosphere of the event. Our (small) big day came fast and despite some people commenting that it could rain, there was a slight sunny shower in the morning and then it was as sunny as a spring day in Perth when I arrived at the ceremony venue. Some remarked that I had brought a bit of the sun from Australia. It did feel like a miracle. We wanted to make our day as intimate and interactive as possible, so many of our guests had a role to play. Since my family couldn’t be there in person, we set up a live web feed so they could watch the ceremony and comment in real time. I highly recommend doing this as you get to read all the comments back the next day and some were truly hilarious. We went for a Celtic ceremony and handfasting ritual at Brigit’s Garden, surrounded by ancient stones, and a reception at The Boat Inn in Oughterard after. We couldn’t have asked for a better wedding even with all the Covid restrictions. The next day, we had a gathering at our house, with traditional Irish music, song and dance. I’d never experienced this before and it was a such a gorgeous continuation of the prior evening. After the wedding, we really wanted to go somewhere overseas for our honeymoon, but the risk of quarantining was just too great. Instead, we ventured to Kinsale. What an amazing decision it was. If you’ve never
