Bride’s dilemma: Wedding day or ‘Winning Streak’

A bride-to-be was faced with a big dilemma this Saturday — whether to say “I do” to her fiancé or to RTÉ’s Winning Streak gameshow.

Mary O’Sullivan, 34, couldn’t believe it when she was picked to appear on the show the same day she is to wed long-term partner Eoin Hamdam.

The Dublin-based special needs assistant will marry IT consultant Eoin, 39, in her native Donegal this Saturday.

“What are the odds of getting picked for Winning Streak on your wedding day? I still can’t believe it,” she laughed.

“My mother always buys me scratch cards and when I got the three stars recently I considered waiting a while to post it in case I was picked and it clashed with my wedding. Then I thought, ‘nah, that won’t happen’. Well, it did.”

Mary has decided to stick with her wedding schedule.

But with all her family and friends attending the nuptials in Co Donegal, Mary has chosen a friend’s daughter — Dublin student Ciara Ní Chleirigh — to be her replacement on the show. She has even instructed the young proxy to bring a ‘rent-a-crowd’ to cheer her on.

“I’ve told Ciara to go and have a great time with her friends and, of course, win me plenty of money,” Mary said.

“We’re tweaking the reception a bit now. When the meal is over we’ll all pull up a seat between 8pm and 9pm to watch Ciara on Winning Streak— the hotel hopes to put up a big screen. The dancing can get under way after that.”