Voting for marriage a labour of love for Paula

THE leader of the Labour Party on Ireland’s largest local authority is to marry for the second time.

Cllr Paula Desmond, a solicitor who specialises in family mediation, will marry long-term partner Joe Feery on Friday, October 10. Her previous marriage was annulled, while Mr Feery, a Labour Party activist and former town councillor, from Tullamore, Co Offaly is divorced.

“I wouldn’t have crossed party lines, otherwise there would have been arguments at the dinner table,” Cllr Desmond joked.

The Carrigaline-based councillor is the daughter of the late Eileen Desmond, who served as Minister for Health & Social Welfare in the 1981 Labour/FG coalition government.

Cllr Desmond said she met Mr Feery nine years ago through Labour Party functions and they have been together ever since.

“He even moved down to Cork to be near me, working for three years in customer service at the Merchant’s Quay shopping centre. He now works as a clerical officer in County Hall,” she said.

Their civil wedding will take place at the Fernhill House Hotel, Clonakilty.

“It will be a low-key affair. We have invited around 60 guests. It will be very much immediate family and friends,” Cllr Desmond said.

Among the politicians attending with be Ciarán Lynch TD and Senator Michael McCarthy, who is based in Dunmanway.

The councillor, who was the first Mayor of County Cork, will have her 24-year-old daughter, Feena, as bridesmaid.

Mr Feery’s best man will be Seán O’Brien, current chairman of Tullamore Town Council.

For their honeymoon the couple will spend three days in Barcelona, followed by a week-long cruise in the Mediterranean.