Saturday 15 August 2015

Romantic Dubliner who met his fiancée aboard train

Geraldine and Ciaran travelled on the 07.06 hrs rail service from Coolmine to Docklands for the final time before their wedding next week. Geraldine was surpised when she was greeted with bubbly, flowers and was serenaded by tenor Simon Morgan and of course Ciaran. Photo: Jason Clarke.

A romantic Dublin man who met his fiancée on the train surprised his wife-to-be with a champagne soaked commute to celebrate her last train journey as a single woman ahead of their wedding next week.

Geraldine McCauley (34) was shocked as a tenor began to serenade her as she boarded her usual train at Coolmine Station with her groom Ciarán O’Keeffe (34).
The couple, who met on the platform two years ago, clinked glasses of Buck’s Fizz as commuters applauded the dose of romance added to their Friday morning.
“I suppose it goes back to two years ago in 2013,” said Ciarán.
“I started getting the train at the start of the year and I noticed this different girl on the platform and then I would see her on the train.
“It was kind of a coincidence then that I realised that she was working in the same building as me... that my company had bought out her company.
“I thought she was gorgeous and I thought she would have a boyfriend,” he said.
Although Ciarán continued to admire Geraldine on the train it wasn’t until a morning when he was feeling particularly unwell after a Champion’s League match that he plucked up the courage to speak to her.
“Every time I saw her on the train or on the platform she’d have her earphones in and her copy of Metro open and I never had a chance to go over to her and get talking to her.
Then as time went on we began having chats at work at the water cooler. The usual ‘How’re you getting on?’
“I was out a Tuesday night to watch a Champion’s League match and the next morning  I was feeling a bit ropey.
“I seen her on the platform and I said ‘This is it, I’m getting in there’.
“So before she put her headphones in and opened her Metro newspaper I went over and started chatting.
“I asked her what she was doing next weekend and if she was going to the work do on Friday. We chatted the whole way as if we were chatting all our lives.
“On Friday we went to the party and we haven’t stopped talking since then,” he said.
The glances across the carriage weren’t one sided either as Geraldine, from Clonsilla Village revealed that she too had her eye on Ciarán.
“I remember one evening taking a seat away from him because he hadn’t come over to talk to me yet but I took a seat where I was still able to look at him,” Geraldine laughed.
“I’m very surprised this morning. It’s very romantic. We know each other inside out. I can’t believe he’s arranged this but he’s actually the real organiser. I’m the fluffy one.
“He usually gets the train after me, but last week he said we’d get the same train from now on.
“It’s our last train journey because I’m starting a new job in a month’s time and we’re getting married next week,” she said.
The couple will marry next week and their wedding is set to be Railway themed to commemorate the fact that Iranrod Eireann brought them together.
“I rang Irish Rail to ask if they had a map so we could organise it for the tables at our wedding and I told Rita our story,” said Ciarán.
“She said it was really unusual for couples to meet on public transport and she helped me go out with a bang.”
Although the couple are thrilled that their morning commute helped them find love they revealed that they did not go as far as to consider saying their ‘I dos’ on their way to work.
“This time next week I’ll be getting married but not on the train,” said Geraldine.
“I think that would be a bit too much!”

Culled

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