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Fifty years of love on Rathlin Island

Peter and Cathy McCurdy

Peter and Cathy McCurdy... then and now.


Peter and Cathy McCurdy met on Rathlin Island during July 1970, while Cathy visited with a friend for a holiday on the Island.


At that time she was training to be a midwife in Glasgow, and was visiting Rathlin Island for a one week vocation. During this time on the Island she met her husband Peter, and he asked her to accompany him to a dance in the Parochial Church Hall on the Island.



Peter and Cathy McCurdy

 

Soon after that Peter went to visit Cathy in Glasgow and when she qualified as a midwife she started working at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast for three years, making it easy for the young-in-love couple to see each other more regularly.

 

Peter proposed and they then got married on the 18th August 1973, in Fourmile Water Church in Co. Waterford.


Thirty-two people travelled down for the wedding and the locals still recall the fun they had at that time.



Peter and Cathy joined by friend and family to celebrate a love story of 50 years and counting on Rathlin Island.

Peter and Cathy joined by friend and family to celebrate a love story of 50 years and counting on Rathlin Island.

Peter and Cathy joined by friend and family to celebrate a love story of 50 years and counting on Rathlin Island.

The couple honeymooned on the West Coast of Ireland before moving to their forever home on Rathlin Island, County Antrim.

 

The couple had four children Joseph, Nigel, Annita and Fiona and have six grandchildren Keelin, Finley, Llana, Simone, Amelia and Mia. Finley shared his eighteenth birthday on the same day as the golden wedding anniversary.


50th wedding anniversary cake

The young-at-heart, still-in-love couple renewed their vows recently at the Church of the Immaculate Conception on Rathlin Island, before enjoying a celebratory lunch in the local Manor House, joined by family and friends.



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