50 years of love on Rathlin Island for Cathy and Peter

Peter McCurdy met Cathy Mangan on Rathlin during July 1970, whilst she was visiting the island on a holiday with a friend.

At that time Cathy, from Ballymacarbry, Co Waterford, was training to be a midwife in Glasgow. During her time on the island she met Peter, who asked her to accompany him to a dance in the parochial church hall.

Asked what attracted her to Peter, Cathy laughs: “I think it was him that was attracted more to me,” – a sentiment with which her husband agrees wholeheartedly, saying Cathy was “very good looking”.

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. Thirty-two people travelled 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 island.

Cathy said she adjusted well to island life, where she helps her husband with the cows on their small farm.

"It’s just beautiful here. I love it,” she said.

The couple, who are now both in their seventies, have four children, Joseph, Nigel, Annita and Fiona and six grandchildren Keelin, Finley, Llana, Simone, Amelia and Mia, Finley shared his 18th birthday on the same day as the golden wedding anniversary.

And Cathy’s advice for a long and happy marriage is simple – ‘Never go to sleep on an argument’, whilst Peter believes the secret to the longevity of their relationship is “enjoying each other’s company and having a good laugh together.”

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 Rathlin Island with family and friends.