Tom and Paul are very much in love and thank their lucky stars that they are two gay men in the Ireland of 2017. They can get married and doing just that! They and their families would like to stand and give you and the people of Ireland a round of applause in appreciation of that wonderful day in February of 2015. So, sit and accept that symbol of appreciation. Tom, Paul and families, rise and do.

Wonderful!

I met Tom and Paul some time ago, we sat and drank tea and got to know each other. They told me their love story and I am now going to share it with you.

Tom and Paul lived streets away from each other in Tralee. They didn’t know each other. They shared a common passion: Gaelic football. At every opportunity they were found on the football field. Different football fields. Rival football fields. They were just 10 years when they had their first encounter. Tom was marking Paul in a game in Champer’s Field. Who threw the first punch, depends on who tells the story but they were both sent off. They were seething. The relationship deepened, if you can call it that when they both, unknown to each other, became altar boys. Yes! It was some surprise when they both found themselves serving the same early mass one Sunday morning.

Tom’s father was, and indeed is, a bank manager and relief was to follow when Tom’s family moved to Cork. There was never a happier young boy than Tom. Much to Tom’s chagrin Paul says he doesn’t remember much about that move.  He says, “Tom just seemed to disappear.”

Time elapses. Each has forgotten about the other. Tom is in UCC and Paul is studying to be a nurse and finds himself in the Order of Malta and on match duty one Sunday afternoon. Tom is playing for UCC. He’s involved in an altercation, his nose is badly broken, and he finds himself treated on the side line by Paul. Each looked at each other with a glint of recognition. Then Paul said, “I see you haven’t changed much”. Tom says, that in whatever way Paul said it, he laughed out loud amidst his pain. Paul accompanied Tom to the A and E. A friendship flourished and then a deep love. That love is evident today. Tom had his own Order of Malta on the side line each Sunday, how good is that!

True love doesn’t always run smoothly and it was so in Tom and Paul’s case. They each graduated and after many late night talks over cups of Barry’s Tea, they decided to separate. To put in their own words “ to see how it would go.” Tom got a graduate visa to the USA. Paul went to work as a volunteer nurse in Brazil. There wasn’t much contact between them because that was what they had decided as they parted. Parting is such sweet sorrow. And it was. As time went on they each realised that anyone they met came nowhere near to what they once had. Paul wrote a letter. Paul likes to write letters. He suggested that Tom and he meet. They decided to go on a Trail Holiday along the Amazon Basin, in Brazil. True love was to bite one sultry night. They were camping out. Tom got bitten on the, ahem, bottom. Tom admits to being a bit of a hypochondriac, he immediately cried ‘I’m dying, I’m dying’. And as it turned out, he might have been for the bite was venomous. But Paul, the Nurse and Order of Malta Volunteer, turns Tom over and sucks the venom from the bite. Now, if that isn’t true love. If anyone doubts the story, Tom has a scar to prove the tale! Paul says, Tom’s days of wearing speedos were now well and truly over.

When their trail was over, they made their way to the beautiful city of Bella Horizonte for a farewell weekend. It was on Tom’s mind, all that day. How was he going to get on his knees and ask this beautiful and wonderful man to marry him? And he did want to do the old fashioned thing and get on his knees. So what does he do? Over dinner, he drops a knife on the floor and while he’s down there, he says, “Paul will you marry me?” Paul thought he was hearing things and says, “What?” Tom arose from the floor without a knife but with a fiancé.

A couple of years and many football matches later, they are here to profess their love for each other and to share their very special day with you, their families and friends. Tom and Paul have asked me to thank you, all of you, for your love, friendship and support and want you to let your hair down and have a wonderful day.

I invite the two Dads to come and read the poem ‘EnFamile’ by Paul Durcan.