Miley and Biddy’s honeymoon

February 1986

A last minute hitch almost prevented County Wicklow’s most popular groom from getting to the church on time last week.

But a quick replacement for the best man’s broken-down car ensured that the wedding of Miley Byrne and Biddy McDermott, two local business people in Glenroe, went ahead without a snag.

It was undoubtedly the most popular wedding that Wicklow had ever seen and it attracted the attention of the entire nation. The big moment took place at the unusual time of 8.30 p.m. on Sunday night last.

The man guest list included most of the villagers who made their way from Glenroe Church to the Bel-Air Hotel in Ashford for the reception. The happy couple were driven to Dublin airport by Matt Moran to catch a flight for their honeymoon in Italy.

On Wednesday, Miley spoke exclusively to the Wicklow People from his Rome hotel room. ‘Begob, this is a great place altogether, so it is, and the people are terrible nice here in the hotel. Biddy says they’re just the same at the hotel that she’s staying in,’ he said.

When asked about his bosses leaking details of the marriage before the event, Miley said ‘sure didn’t you lads in the Wicklow People write about it months ago and didn’t that Gay Byrne see your paper and blabber it out to everyone in the country. A fella can’t do anything in secret at all, at all.’ They are set to find out on their return that Biddy has lost her licence for drunken driving.