The women who leapt at the chance to propose marriage

Today, some might say, is the day every dithering boyfriend dreads. It is the day when the traditional rules of courtship are reversed and women, as outmoded tradition dictates, get to ask the biggest question of their lives.

What is Captain Caveman to do with all this female forwardness, these ladies-a-leaping with their bold proposals?

Hide under the stairs and wait the day out? Or take it like a man? After all,in 13th century Scotland, they used to fine men who declined proposals on February 29.

And how should the woman go about grooming her would-be groom? Tie a note to a cute puppy? Send a text? Do it atop that bastion of romance, the Eiffel Tower? Get down on one knee, rose clenched in teeth, stomach tied in knots?

One Co Londonderry woman who opted for an all-out public proposition was Lisa Houston.

On February 29, 2012, her then boyfriend of two years David sat down at home to watch the TV coverage of his beloved Northern Ireland play at their home ground of Windsor Park.

What happened at half time was certainly something he wasn’t expecting. For there, right in the middle of the pitch, cheered on by delighted fans, was Lisa, standing with a huge banner which spelled out the six words that were to change his life forever: David Houston, will you marry me?

Thankfully David said yes and the pair, who live in Claudy, tied the knot in October 2013, a year and a half after the Leap Day proposal.

Eight years on, Lisa, 35, and David, 38, are as happy as ever and now the proud parents of three sons, George, 4, Elliot, 2, and Henry, 1.

Lisa, who works in a nursing home in Omagh, said the idea of taking matrimonial matters into her own hands was quite a random one.

“David’s friends had tickets to a Northern Ireland game, but he said he couldn’t be bothered going, so I said I’d like to go as I had never been to a football match.

“I asked him what date it was on, and when he said February 29, I said, are you sure you want me to go?’ But he was so busy watching the Super Sunday game that he didn’t even take me on.”

Lisa then got in touch with the Irish Football Association to see if they would allow her to ask Sky TV to point their cameras at her during the match so she could hold up her proposal. But Sky told her that she would need to actually come on to the pitch.

The first half of the match passed without a single goal, which didn’t help Lisa’s nerves.

Then, when the whistle blew, she made her way onto the pitch, helped by a couple of David’s friends, and unveiled the five foot banner, which she had ordered online, proclaiming the question of all questions.

“It was the longest five minutes of my life waiting for the phone to ring to hear a yes, ” she recalled..

“Finally he rang and said, what are you at?’, and I said, well?’. He said yes, and I shouted his answer to the crowd and got a massive cheer. It was hilarious.’’

Looking back on that momentous day, Lisa admitted she doesn’t know if she would have the guts to do it now.

‘‘David and me talk about it sometimes and I think if I was to do it now, I’d be more nervous. But David would say that he is still chuffed to bits to this day that I did it - it was a brave thing to do and it was a nice thing that happened to him.’’

And he even received a signed Northern Ireland shirt as a result of his then girlfriend’s plucky proposal.

Lisa’s advice to other women contemplating the big question today is simple - ‘go for it’.

‘‘If you’ve found the person you want to spend the rest of your life with, it doesn’t really matter who asks who. And if you don’t you’ll have to wait another four years.’’

The tradition of women proposing on leap day is thought to date back to 5th-century Ireland when St Bridget complained to St Patrick that women had to wait too long for suitors to propose.

He then gave women a single day in a leap year to pop the question - the last day of the shortest month.

Legend has it that Brigid then dropped to a knee and proposed to Patrick that instant, but he refused, kissing her on the cheek and offering a silk gown to soften the blow.

Others believe the tradition originates from Scotland when Queen Margaret, then aged just five, declared in 1288 that a woman could propose to any man she liked on February 29.

Another woman who decided to do the asking was Joanne Palmer, 49, from Ballykelly, Co Londonderry.

In 1990 Joanne was working at Butlins in Minehead, Somerset. A week into her job as deputy manager of the nursery, the then 19-year-old met Ian, 18, who was on holidays at the resort with his friends.

Joanne recalled: ‘‘We were in one of the nightclubs in Butlins and his friend was trying to chat me up, but I kept looking at Ian and he kept looking at me. The next night after that we met and got chatting ourselves. So, it was a holiday romance at the beginning.’’

After Ian returned home to Cornwall, the lovestruck pair maintained their romance writing letters to each other and chatting on the phone.

A year later Ian also got a job at Butlins and that, said Joanne, was when they ‘‘started getting serious’’ about each other.

Joanne was ‘‘madly in love’’ with ‘‘tall, blonde’’ Ian and decided she wanted to marry him.

‘‘I think we both knew that we were going to be together, It just felt right.

‘‘I remember reading Leap Year Day was the day women could propose and I have to say that he was the nearest thing to perfect that I had ever met.’’

Butlins had closed for February, but the lovebirds stayed on, Joanne working as a chalet maid and Ian doing security.

Joanne, a self-confessed terrible cook, decided to sweeten the proposal by baking a cake on her ‘wee two-ring cooker’’ in her room.

She added: ‘‘I had bought a ring in Minehead that cost £5, just so that I could put it on if he said yes.’’

Prior to the big question, Joanne admits she felt anxious.

‘‘I am quite a confident person, but I was really, really nervous that day.

‘‘He came in and sat down and I got down on one knee and I said ‘Ian, will you marry me?’ and I lifted out the cake and he said ‘you, didn’t bake that’ and then he said ‘yes’.

A few months later the pair came back to Northern Ireland for a holiday,

‘‘Ian said he wanted to propose to me, but he wanted to do things right,’’ said Joanne, ‘‘so he took my dad to one side and asked him if he could have permission to marry his daughter. Really old-fashioned. And then in front of all my cousins and aunts and uncles, he proposed then.’’

Ian and Joanne got married on January 28, 1995, now have two children, Bradley, 21, and Abigail, 19, and have just celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary.

Joanne said: ‘‘Every leap year day I wonder who else is doing it.’’

Her advice to other women contemplating a proposal is this: ‘‘If you are going to do it, it has to be that person who is different than anybody else you have ever met, you have to have that feeling that this is the person you want to spend the rest of your life with. It’s very serious. I think people take marriage too lightly these days.

‘‘Before I met Ian I was diagnosed with psoriatic arthritis and when I first met him I was absolutely fine, but just before we got married it got a lot worse. I went through a lot and he stood by me. He’s a hard-worker. He’s a good man.

‘‘We’ll be together 30 years in June. I don’t think I could imagine spending that time with anybody else.’’