Westlife's Shane marries childhood sweetheart

More than 350 guests were this evening at one of country's most exclusive hotels for the latest wedding party to feature one …

More than 350 guests were this evening at one of country's most exclusive hotels for the latest wedding party to feature one of the Westlife boy band.

Tying the knot in Co Mayo were singer Shane Filan and childhood sweetheart Gillian Walsh.

The pair wed at historic Ballintubber Abbey, but celebrated later in the luxurious lakeside splendour of the nearby Ashford Castle hotel.

The Westlifer's elder brother Finbar acted as best man at the ceremony in Ballintubber, which dates back to the 13th century - and was once left a wreck by the army of Oliver Cromwell.

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The event marked the first Westlife wedding since last summer's occasion in a French, rather than an Irish village, when Nicky Byrne married Georgina, one of the Taoiseach's two daughters.

Today, though, there was no tie-up with a celebrity magazine that made the French wedding so controversial back home for the premier, a guest this time.

Around 200 of Westlife's noisy, but devoted following stood in the icy-cold-but-mainly-bright weather outside the Abbey to catch a glimpse of their favourites and cheer them into and out of the church.

PA