Washington is gearing up for a White House wedding with a strong Irish link, the result of a match made in the North during Bill Clinton's 1995 visit. The US president was accompanied by the White House's deputy director for legislative affairs, Susan Brophy from Quincy, Massachusetts, a woman well known in Irish America. Also travelling with Clinton, as a member of the accompanying congressional and business delegation, was Gerry McGowan, a former classmate of Clinton's at Georgetown in 1968. Now McGowan and Brophy are to marry. Though the president did not actually introduce the bride and groom, he likes to take credit for it, Ms Brophy told Quidnunc. McGowan, a partner in a Washington-based communications law firm, is a widower with five children. He is expected to be appointed ambassador to Portugal following his Senate confirmation. The bride, who will leave her White House job before the wedding on January 10th, will be moving into the ambassador's residence in Lisbon at the end of January. "It's time to go," Ms Brophy said. "It's a natural time to make the break."