Orla and fiancé blessed at Shrine of St Valentine

At the shrine of the holy relics of St Valentine at the Carmelite Church in Dublin city, Bishop Denis Nulty blessed engaged couples Orla Gavin, (who is originally from Mullingar) and Patrick Corcoran, and Ilona Catharine Dorrepaal and Patrick Michael Lennon this week.

In welcoming the couples to the Shrine of St Valentine, Bishop Nulty said: “Celebrating the sacrament of marriage is a profound decision in the life of a couple. Today I am honoured to join with Ilona and Patrick, and with Orla and PJ, at the shrine of St Valentine.

“Our two couples represent the many couples across this island who will celebrate the sacrament and thereby connect their love for one another to the source of love, who is God. A sacrament is like the 3-D glasses we watch movies with; love is not just between the couple themselves, but firmly united with God.”

Following the blessing, the Catholic marriage care service Accord released its latest attendance figures for couples undertaking sacramental marriage preparation courses.

Tony Shanahan, director of Accord CLG, said: “it is reassuring to see that attendance figures for Accord marriage preparation courses are back to their pre-Covid levels. In 2019 – the most recent full year available for comparison – we provided 285 marriage preparation programmes to 4,610 couples. That figure equals our service in 2022, when we hosted 4,610 couples on 297 programmes.

“When we consider that, for 2021, the Central Statistics Office reported that religious ceremonies accounted for 57% of all marriages in the state; and that the 6,721 Catholic marriages that year amounted to 39% of the total figure, Accord’s data of today paints a positive picture in terms of the numbers who are planning a church marriage in the future.

“As marriage is the greatest undertaking in life for most people, we encourage preparation as a prerequisite to success. For more than 60 years, Accord has helped couples to prepare and, from our experience, it is best to undertake a marriage preparation course six to nine months ahead of the wedding date. It provides a valuable opportunity for couples to discuss the current strength of their relationship, and identify key elements that are handled well, and those areas that would benefit from further development.

“In terms of atmosphere, our programmes are relaxed and facilitated by professionals with lived marriage experience.

“Couples on our courses benefit from sharing experiences and concerns in open, stimulating and fun discussions. Afterwards, couples regularly provide feedback that they had believed they had discussed everything with each other until their marriage preparation programme, only to realise that they had made many assumptions,” Mr Shanahan said.

Profile of engaged couples to receive the blessing at the Shrine of St Valentine

Orla Gavin and Patrick (PJ) Corcoran: Orla is a psychiatric nurse originally from Mullingar and Patrick is a quality controller, who is from Tipperary Town.

The couple met the night before the first day of college, in the Stables Club at the University of Limerick, and have been together since.

PJ proposed to Orla a week before she finished her nursing internship on 16 September, four years and a week after they had met.

Their wedding is planned for the 20 December next in The Cathedral of Christ the King, Mullingar, Diocese of Meath.

What do you like most about your fiancé/e? Orla: “Patrick’s kindness”; Patrick: “Orla’s caring nature”.

Why have you chosen to be married in the Church? “Because we both share a strong faith and our Irish tradition.”

Ilona Catharine Dorrepaal and Patrick Michael Lennon are both primary school teachers who first met in the Gaeltacht in Dingle.

Ilona said: “Patrick was new to my year in college in Marino, Dublin. Pretty soon we were dancing together at the céilís.”

Ilona is originally from Dublin, her mam is from Wicklow and her dad is Dutch.

Patrick is from Meath, his mam is from Dublin and his dad from Roscommon.

They live in Maynooth, and have been together for five and a half years; their marriage is on 16 February 2024 in the Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, (St Mary’s, Keadue), Roscommon, Diocese of Ardagh and Clonmacnois, followed by a reception in Kilronan Castle.

What do you like most about your fiancé/e? Patrick likes that Ilona is a kind and helpful person and is generally always happy. Ilona likes that Patrick loves to make her laugh, he supports her and always tries to make sure that she is happy.

Why have you chosen to be married in the Church? “We both grew up going to church with our parents. Ilona’s mam and Patrick’s mam and dad come from strong Catholic backgrounds. We were both altar servers when we were children.”