How I met my partner: Circus king is the 'ring-master' after epic proposal

A cork couple shared the story behind their unconventional first kiss that set tongues wagging at a surprise party.

It was the night that circus stars Cormac Mohally and Noelle O’Regan started to look at each other as more than just good friends.

Cormac and Noelle have many strings to their bow but it was circus that brought them together.

The artistic director of the Circus Factory in Cork met his now wife during a circus training workshop he was running in 2009. However, it would take years for love to blossom between the pair. 

Cormac recalled: “She came into the workshop and I liked her energy. Years ago I asked her 'why are you single?' She just seemed like such a cool person. I didn’t have 'those' eyes when I first met her because I was in another relationship but it was easy to see how amazing she was.”

Cormac cast his mind back to before their romance.

“It was sometime between 2014 and 2016 that we became really good friends,” he told The Echo. “I can still remember the day I rang her on the phone. I started the call by saying 'I’m ringing you because you’re my friend'. I’m normally terrible at ringing people but I was just after dropping my friend to school and thought 'I’m going to ring my friend'. Noelle started crying. She’s a very emotional person."

The friends had a wealth in common. Cormac delighted audiences on Britain's Got Talent in 2017 as one half of comedy/dance double act Lords of Strut. Noelle from Kinsale subsequently performed on the show with artist Tom Campbell with a quirky act involving clay and dance.

“It was three years ago at Cormac’s 40th birthday party that we kissed for the first time,” Noelle said. “Me and a few of our circus friends threw a surprise birthday party for Cormac. He was super emotional and told me that he couldn’t believe I had done this for him.”

Nobody could have predicted what happened next.

“I said 'Is this the part where we shift?' and he said 'yeah, okay'."

The pair locked lips prompting a frenzy among onlookers. “We were just having the mess but our friends were losing their minds,” Noelle said. “I didn’t think anything of it but less than a year later we were at a friend’s birthday - a picnic in Bells Field - when we kissed for the second time. We were only allowed to be in groups of six at the time. Technically, that was our second kiss but I always think of it as our first 'real' one.”

Noelle recounted the intensity of that time.

“We spent that weekend holding hands,” she said. “Every now and again I would kiss him and he’d look really shocked. I was asking 'Jesus, is it okay that I kissed you?' and he’d say 'it’s okay…it’s lovely'. I almost died every time he held my hand.”

Despite spending a number of nights together, Noelle was unsure where the relationship might lead. She opened up about the moment they said goodbye to one another after he dropped her home.

“He turned to me on the path and asked 'can we see where this goes?' For the next few days I was stressed out of my head wondering what exactly he could have meant by the question.” Fortunately, Noelle had nothing to worry about and Cormac proposed to her a year later at a Circus Factory event.

“On the Easter weekend the following year we were on stage and having trouble with the rigging. There was someone sorting out the rigging when Cormac told me he had a question for me. We were in front of hundreds of people. They weren’t sure if it was an act or he was actually proposing.”

Noelle and Cormac tied the knot last month.

“The plan was to get married during Easter of the following year but my sister was coming back from New Zealand and I wanted her to be there,” Cormac explained.

The couple held their wedding party in Noelle’s brother’s cowshed.

“We went to see it in January when it was full of cows,” she told The Echo. “When a DJ box and door was added to it, it looked amazing. We did it festival style. My sister did it up like a beautiful banquet and picked the flowers for it. My friend Taylor and I did the centre pieces.”

Cormac described their transition from friends to husband and wife as a natural progression.

“When we started going out the relationship was deep and intimate,” he said. “This was like another layer to our friendship.”

Noelle opened up about what attracted her to the performer.

“Cormac is really funny. I like the way he sees the world because it’s a bit quirky and of course he is a total ride.”

Cormac is the organiser behind the Pitch'd Circus and Street Arts Festival which takes place at various venues and streets across Cork city from September 11 to September 24.