Kerryman Jack O’Regan’s valiant bid for fiancée’s hand

Many grooms begrudgingly sign up to the church’s customary pre-marriage course — but it pales in comparison to the marathon series of rituals endured by one Kerryman to gain the hand his Kenyan bride.

Jack O’Regan only officially became engaged to his fiancée Yolanda Chakava after gaining entry to her African clan by singing and dancing, spouting Irish history, negotiating a dowry, and picking her out of a line-up of women covered from head to toe in cloth.

Scientists Jack and Yolanda fell in love when they met at university in the UK, with the Ballyheigue native getting down on one knee a few years later when he returned to Kenya to finish his thesis.