In-laws chained for two weeks toast €10,000 prize

A WEEK chained to your mother-in-law must seem like the worst nightmare for any man, but two who suffered through it for the sake of a free wedding walked free from their shackles yesterday.

Cork man Paddy Flynn from Carrigtwohill and Maire Cunneen from Ballyphehane, Cork, were yesterday declared the winners in 96FM’s Chained competition, which saw two men attached to their mother-in-laws for the past week.

The prize is a €10,000 wedding reception at the Rochestown Park Hotel, but Paddy said they earned every penny of it.

He said: “When we were out in the pub we got a lot of strange looks, especially when we were going to the loo and that.

“It was mostly from the women and kids, they just wanted to know were we sleeping in the same bed, they were all interested in that.

“We actually worked it so that we had a double bed each to ourselves so it worked out well like that.”

Maire said other people seemed to be more bothered than the two joined together.

She said: “It was difficult at times. I think other people got more embarrassed than we did, like when I would have to bring him in to the ladies’ toilet, but we got through it.”

The pair nipped the prize ahead of runners-up George Rickard and Maureen O’Flynn, who got one more question wrong in a live on-air quiz to find out which man knew their mother-in-law best.

George and Maureen endured the same week- long ordeal and as runners- up they won a €2,000 wedding voucher for the Rochestown Park Hotel.

Both couples were wined and dined for the week, attending concerts and restaurants while at all times staying two feet apart.

Now that he is free, Paddy said there is a part of him that misses having Maire around him 24 hours a day.

“It was funny, you were free for about half an hour in the morning to shower and shave and that, but even then it felt like she was still chained to me, even now I feel like she is there.”

Maire said she is closer to Paddy now than before.

“Ah no, the chains are off but I’ll still stick by him thick and thin.”

Paddy and his fiancee Donna Cunneen had been putting off their nuptials until they got over the expense of buying their first house but with the €10,000 prize they will now turn their attention to picking a day.

“...we said we would take a couple of days to think about it but we are looking at next year; it would nice to have a summer wedding.”