Dancing couple follow perfect course with all the right moves

CORK University Hospital’s emergency department wouldn’t be considered the most romantic location to end a first date.

Nonetheless love is known to flourish in the most unlikely of places. This was undoubtedly the case for one of Cork’s best loved couples Eveanna Kearney and John O’Flynn. The pair fell for each other at a mutual friend’s birthday party while both just 17.

John, who hails from Rochestown, confessed that he never felt any need for chat up lines opting for the natural and down-to-earth-approach.

“My approach was very bland and simple,” he admits. “There was no chat-up lines. I just walked right up to her and said “hi, how are you?” Psychiatric nurse, Eveanna recalled how the pair immediately hit it off.

“I was going to Scoil Mhuire and John was in Christians. He walked me to school every day. We chatted about everything. I don’t think there was a day that we ran out of conversation.” The couple’s first dinner date didn’t go as expected. Eveanna, who hails from Montenotte, explained.

“We spotted a man in the river while out walking by Larry Tompkins pub. John jumped in to save him and that was our official first date.” However, John insists he is no hero.

“He had been drifting away and I just held on to the ladder for stability until emergency services arrived. They were there very quick. All I really did was buy them time.” Eveanna was relieved that neither party was harmed.

“Thankfully, it was all good and the boy survived,” she said.

John and Eveanna finished out the remainder of their night in the emergency department.

“We were brought there as a precaution,” she said. “ Since John had been in the river they wanted to give us both a tetanus shot but it turned out that neither of us needed one in the end.” The couple’s relationship continued to go from strength to strength. John opened up about Eveanna’s strong influence growing up.

“When I was filling out my CAO form I had no idea what to put down,” he said. “Eveanna encouraged me to put down psychiatric nursing. I had been listening to her talk about it and it sounded really interesting. If I hadn’t met Eveanna I would have definitely ended up doing something else.

John initially went with his first choice, biochemistry.

“I was just three weeks into the course when I realised that it wasn’t for me,” he said. “I got into psychiatric nursing three weeks late and have been doing this ever since.” The pair ended up graduating from the course together before travelling the world and going viral in the process.

John and Eveanna are now best known for their take on the famous Young Offenders dance which they performed in each of the nine countries they visited.

Set to techno music, the routine was inspired by an iconic scene from the hit film and TV series The Young Offenders.

The performance was close to the young couple’s heart as John had appeared in the series as a featured extra.

“I was a Garda alongside the character Sergeant Healy played by Dominic McHale. I love the programme but I’m a terrible dancer. Eveanna is amazing and she had lots of patience to help me get the dance just right.”

John and Eveanna never anticipated that the footage of their dancing would capture hearts across Ireland. Eveanna later revealed another hidden talent on the couple’s wedding day.

She belted out Elvis’s “Can’t Help Falling in Love” during her walk up the aisle.

Just a few months on from their wedding and the pair are still singing from the same hymn sheet as they celebrate 12 happy years together.