A Galway couple have won a once-in-a-lifetime prize of a luxury wedding at the Virginia Park Lodge in County Cavan.
Aileen Burke from Corofin who is an ICU nurse at University Hospital Galway and Gerard Cunniffe from Tuam won the competition for frontline health workers which raised €36,421 for the Society of St Vincent de Paul (SVP )
The #CorrigansVowToTheFrontline competition attracted nearly 3,000 entries and is the brainchild of celebrity chef Richard Corrigan who offered to a frontline healthcare worker the prize of a wedding at his 18th century estate.
The couple who had planned to marry on March 27, the date that would mark their 10 year anniversary of meeting, said that they were overwhelmed and could not believe the news when told about their win.
SVP national president Kieran Stafford who selected the winners from a shortlist of five couples said; “In my view Aileen epitomizes the spirit of what this competition is about, to honour a front line worker who has made sacrifices for others in this crisis and put their own needs behind the needs of others.
“To brush off the disappointment of her wedding not going ahead and go straight into work to save lives in my view is amazing. All the shortlisted entries were amazing I wish we had five weddings to give out.
“We are extremely grateful to Richard Corrigan and his team for providing the public with another opportunity to show their support for frontline workers who have done so much during Covid-19 and at the same time make a contribution to SVP. We badly need funds at this time and support like this helps ensure that we can carry on providing help to the thousands who contact us by phone and online.”
In congratulating the couple, Mr Corrigan said “When Covid-19 hit Ireland and the UK our whole world changed. We were forced to shut down our businesses without the knowledge of when we’d reopen. I’ve always had the utmost respect and admiration for anyone working for our public healthcare service which includes my two sisters, niece, and wife Maria.
“This initiative isn’t a scratch on the vital work our frontline workers are doing during this pandemic, however, I wanted to offer a token of our appreciation to those engaged (or soon to be ) as well as offering crucial funds for St Vincent De Paul’s emergency appeal.”
Aileen and Gerard will meet management at Virginia Park Lodge this week to set a date and arrange the details for their luxury wedding.
