Rathlin Island couple Peter and Cathy McCurdy celebrate 50 years together

Peter and Cathy McCurdy meet on the island in July 1970 when Cathy – from Co Waterford – visited with a friend for a holiday. At that time she was training to be a midwife in Glasgow, and was visiting Rathlin for a one-week break. During this time she met Peter and he asked her to accompany him to a dance in the parochial church hall.

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 and this made it easy for them to see each other.

Peter proposed and they then got married, on August 18,1973, in Fourmilewater Church in Co Waterford. A group of 32 people traveled down for the wedding and the locals still recall the fun they had at that time.The couple honeymooned on the west coast of Ireland before moving to their forever home on Rathlin.

The couple went on to have four children – Joseph, Nigel, Annita and Fiona – and now have six grandchildren – Keelin, Finley, Llana, Simone, Amelia and Mia. Finley shared his 18th birthday on the same day as the golden wedding anniversary.

The couple renewed their vows at the Church of the Immaculate Conception on Rathlin Island and afterwards enjoyed a celebratory lunch in the Manor House on the island with family and friends.