Our moments of joy in 2020
New series starts off with the first same sex wedding in Northern Ireland’s history
CHRIS Mcnaghten (31), owns a gym and Jon Swan (24), a photographer and videographer from Co Antrim, were married at a wedding venue in Larne, Co Antrim, this December, by Pastor Steve Ames.
It followed legislation introduced in July. Same-sex marriage has been legally recognised here since January but did not extend to ceremonies in churches or to religious bodies.
Chris says: “We had our wedding at Hillmount House in Larne, which was just out of this world and a beautiful, beautiful venue.
“The day absolutely flew in; the ceremony itself was very, very emotional. It was traditional and I don’t think there was a dry eye in the house. Everybody was crying.
“We were supposed to get married on June 12 in Dublin and Covid came into play and it messed all that up. So the only place up north that we wanted to get married was Hillmount.
“We got engaged in Dublin and we love the nightlife in Dublin and we wanted to keep non-wedding-y and l ow-key. Obviously, Covid made that impossible but both of us our glad now that we had it at home. Now we had the wedding that we dreamed of.
“Neither of us would call ourselves religious people or have strong religious beliefs, but we went to the family minister who we were both very fond of and asked him if he would marry us and he said yes.
“I didn’t give it a second thought. It was only when he said to me that this was going to be the first same-sex religious wedding, that I realised the significance of it.
“The response, from what I’ve seen, has been very positive. You’re always going to have the bigots and haters... but the way I look at is the LGBTQ community a lot less embarrassed by Northern Ireland; it is more inclusive, diverse than years ago.
“I genuinely believe that for a lot of people in Northern Ireland that it was terribly embarrassing the fact that our country is oen of the last to allow LGBTQ rights. I think there are so many. It’s brilliant to see it.
“I’ve worked in mental health for years, and I hand on heart believe a lot of lives have been lost in this country because of how slow it was for changes to take place and the homophobia.
“It feels nice that the people who’ve worked for this got the exposure they deserve for there many years of hard work. My hat goes off to them. As a child growing up in Northern Ireland you never thought this would be possible.
“Even with Covid, with our first wedding plans being cancelled it gave those thoughts again; that it was never going to happen.
“It’s been a difficult year because of Covid because we’ve lost family and it’s been a rollercoaster of highs and lows but you have to make the best of things at any time of your life. Getting married was obviously the highlight of my year.”