There was no recession in Leitrim for the last three weeks as locals in Aughavas, Mohill, got ready for the wedding there of Brian O'Driscoll and Amy Huberman, writes ROISIN INGLEin Leitrim
THE IRISH rugby captain Brian O’Driscoll pulled off the ultimate conversion – from singleton to married man – when he exchanged vows with actor/author Amy Huberman in the tiny parish of Aughavas, Co Leitrim, yesterday afternoon.
The bride wore a short veil and a strapless off-white gown by Stephanie Allin, the groom wore dashing dark grey Louis Copeland tails and a couple of hundred locals wore grins as a wide as a rugby stadium when sporting stars, including the groom himself, took time to sign autographs and pose for pictures with the crowd.
O’Driscoll arrived almost 35 minutes early for the scheduled 2pm ceremony in St Joseph’s Church with his two best men and a groomsman. Asked how he felt, he said “excited”, before rushing down to the crowd to sign autographs, shake hands and thank the delighted well-wishers for coming.
Huberman, who turned up in a white Bentley a traditional 20 minutes late, narrowly missing a brief torrential rain shower, looked relaxed and happy carrying a bouquet of pale pink peony roses.
The pink and white theme was everywhere. Her four bridesmaids, two of whom are pregnant, wore individually designed pink or “antique blush” – according to the Dublin designer Fee G – dresses.
“It’s the most fertile wedding in Ireland,” said one observer, noting that about 10 of the guests appeared to be pregnant.
Huberman's most famous role to date has been in RTÉ's The Clinicand some of her former co- stars were guests. Actors Norma Sheehan and Rachel Pilkington spoke to journalists after the ceremony and said the service had been "sweet and lovely with lots of laughter".
They said the biggest laugh came during the Jewish glass-breaking ritual which was incorporated into proceedings to reflect the Polish/Jewish heritage of the bride’s father, Harold Huberman.
One of the best men Damien O’Donoghue, placed the linen covered glass on the ground and balanced it with his outstretched finger as though it were a rugby ball O’Driscoll was about to place-kick on a windy pitch.
Following Jewish tradition, the groom stamped down on the glass with his foot and smashed the glass as some guests cried out “Maseltov!” The couple’s publicist Joanne Byrne said she could not confirm whether Amy would change her name, but she said that the celebrant Fr Twomey was the first person to congratulate the new “Mr and Mrs O’Driscoll”.
Fr Twomey is an uncle of Barry Twomey, O’Driscoll’s close friend who died in May 2008.
After the ceremony, taking photographs of the GAA scoreboard in nearby Cloone which featured a good luck message to the couple, O’Driscoll’s father Frank said Fr Twomey had done “a powerful job as always. We are all so pleased with the day.”
There was no magazine deal, no snubbing of locals and, as a result, it is official: Leitrim loves Brian and Amy. In the garden of a house across the road from the church, one family were having a garden party in their honour. In a field nearby, two effigies of the Irish rugby captain and his new wife – the most glamorous-looking scarecrows ever seen in the county – sat on a bench with a sign that read “Gud Luck”.
The local mood was given a boost by the celebrations at Clement Gaffney’s Lough Rynn Castle where the couple held their reception. There was a champagne reception on the lawn, a six-course meal in the banqueting hall and music from the Camembert Quartet.
“It’s lifted the county. There has been no recession in Leitrim for the last three weeks while locals have been preparing for this,” Gaffney said.
Guests at the wedding included a sprinkling of showbiz personalities and a scrum of rugby stars.
Paul O’Connell, Shane Jennings, Rob Kearney, Gordon D’Arcy, Jamie Heaslip, Donnacha O’Callaghan, Guy Easterby, Shane Horgan and Luke Fitzgerald were all part of the star-studded line- out. Ronan O’Gara and his wife Jessica were celebrating the birth of their third child in Cork University Hospital and couldn’t make the celebrations.
Other famous names at the wedding included Dublin comedian David O'Doherty, IT Crowdstar Chris O'Dowd and actors Victoria Smurfit and Pauline McLynn. Taoiseach Brian Cowen sent a message of congratulations to the couple wishing them a life full of "happiness and fun".
The ceremony featured a rendition in Italian of the Take That song Rule the Worldand a soprano singing Eva Cassidy's version of Songbird. The beaming couple kissed on the church steps before they left in the sunshine under a sprinkling of white rose petals and travelled to their reception in the Bentley which had "Just Married" scrawled on the back window.
“A class act,” said one observer watching the car leave along a country road lined with locals. And yesterday the whole county of Leitrim seemed to agree.