Go get him girl!

It’s a leap year, so it’s acceptable for women to propose to their beloved. Forty-two percent of men would say ‘yes’, but are those safe odds, asks Sue Leonard

FORTY-TWO per cent of Irishmen would say ‘yes,’ if their girlfriend proposed. At first glance the statistic, from a survey carried out by PopCap Games, looks like good news for a woman planning to pop the question this leap year. But hang on. If 42% would say ‘yes’ that means a whopping 58% of Irishmen would say ‘no’ to marriage. It’s a sobering thought.

In my research, I didn’t meet any women who had been turned down. Gilly Fraser, a writer with Mills and Boon, made her love story come true in 2000 by proposing. She’s still blissfully happy. Grandmother Nell Newman proposed — and she’s been married 42 years.