Learning Points: Our own romantic comedy began with a movie date in Douglas cinema

The kids wanted to know about our first date. I could see them, eyes peeled, looking at the old cinema house

Richard Hogan's first date with his wife was at the cinema in Douglas, Cork.

The opening of the movie Love Actually is one of those moments in cinema that stays with you long after viewing it. I was in my mid-20s when, on a cold Cork winters evening in 2004, myself and my girlfriend, later to be wife, decided to go to Douglas cinema. We really hadn’t any movie in mind, just head down and see what was on offer. It seems so exotic now, the idea of living by your vagaries and going where ever it is that took your fancy. Seems like a distant world, so much has moved on and changed since then. 

The cinema, too, has gone. like a scene from Cinema Paradiso when Toto returns to burry Alfredo, we passed that old cinema this Christmas. The sad dilapidated sight of a once-bustling hive of activity drew a loud sigh from both myself and my wife.