All aboard the love train for happy couple
A COUPLE boarded the train on their wedding day yesterday – six years after meeting on Irish Rail’s Dublin to Ennis service and then falling in love.
A special ‘love train’ pulled into Colbert Rail Station in Limerick to meet local bride Rachael Finucane and her Clare groom Dermot Comerford as they stopped off on platform one on their way to their wedding reception.
Met by red heart-shaped balloons and a heartfelt message on the departure gates to celebrate their big day, the happy couple went on board the locomotive of love to share their memories of their first meeting on board the train.
Ms Finucane, a former journalist now working in public relations, said: ‘We met on the train in April 2012 when we just happened to be sitting beside each other.
‘I had booked my seat online and when I arrived on board, there was this Clare man sitting in the aisle seat. He turned and said, ‘Well Rachael how’s it goin’, like he had known me all my life,’ she added.
‘He knew my name because my name was up in lights overhead. ‘So we had a bit of a laugh about that.’ Mr Comerford was instantly smitten, she said: ‘When we arrived into Limerick Junction, he offered to carry my bags.
‘He came with me and sat back down beside me.’
After the pair said their goodbyes at Limerick Railway Station, on what turned out to be their first date, Mr Comerford later decided to message Ms Finucane on Facebook, asking her out on a date.
Ms Finucane joked: ‘I had a good feeling about him. I didn’t think he was the axe murderer-type.
‘At least we didn’t pass one another like trains in the night.’
After exchanging ‘I dos’ in an intimate ceremony at Limerick’s Mary Immaculate College where they both work, they dashed to make the train.
Ms Finucane wearing a stunning white dress, and Mr Comerford dressed in a smart suit and tie, were greeted by Colbert Railway Station manager Philip Conway, before stepping on board a special Dublin-Ennis to re-enact their first romantic rail journey together.
Speaking afterwards, a thrilled Rachael, who successfully underwent treatment after being diagnosed with a brain tumour in 2010, said: ‘Today was a lot like the day I met Dermot; when I saw him I was walking down an aisle and I saw a handsome man in a suit, and I thought this could be my lucky day, and it was.’
A dapper Mr Comerford said: ‘Rachael is great, a wonderful person, very patient. And, of course, she listens to the man who chatted her up for hours on a train…I don’t think we’ll ever forget today.’