How I Met My Partner: Cork chip shop mogul Dino Cregan still in love after 61 years

FORMER Lord Mayor Dino Cregan still daydreams about the day he spotted his wife for the first time from a bus travelling through Cork city.

The young bus boy from Bandon Road couldn’t help but wonder about the mysterious young lady who frequented the same route every day.

“She was a lasher”, the chip shop mogul told The Echo. “Mary always looked so dainty when she was running to get to work”.

The factory girl, who grew up in Turners Cross, never learned about her secret admirer until the pair came face to face in a local dance hall. However, it was far from love at first sight that Mary experienced.

“I had no idea in the world who he was”, she laughed.

Dino recalled dancing his way over to Mary and her friends in the hope of catching the young woman’s eye. He did just that, albeit for all the wrong reasons.

“I looked at him and said 'what are you doing?', Mary laughed.

Taken aback by the Cork man’s unconventional dance moves, she proceeded to show him a thing or two. It would be Dino’s first - but not his last -impromptu dance lesson from Mary.

“I wasn’t taken with him at the time. All I wanted was to dance and meet my friends”, Mary explained.

Dino, who is preparing to celebrate the couple's 61st wedding anniversary on September 25, recalled those innocent times.

“There was no real drinking in those days. Fellas got one pint and thought they were drunk. They had milk and cakes there but neither of us ever drank”.

It seemed that Dino didn’t need Dutch courage to try his charm on Mary a second time.

“My house was only two doors above the dance hall. I knew the night she was going there so I waited outside with my dog, a little Scottish terrier named Sammy. When she came outside I pretended I was bringing the dog for a walk and asked her if she wanted to join me. 

"It was 11 O’Clock at night when I walked her home. Sammy was like the matchmaker. He was the start of it really”.

PERSISTANCE

Luckily, his persistence paid off and he managed to bag a date with his dream woman.

“That was when he asked me out. It turned out he knew me but I didn’t know him. All those days I was walking to work I had no idea there was someone watching me,” she laughed.

Mary remembers their date like it was yesterday.

“We made a date to go dancing again because I wasn’t a pictures person. The Arcadia was massive in those days. I can remember all the musicians dressed in their cream suits”.

He described Mary as the “most beautiful dancer”.

“Mary was a great dancer. She showed me how to do the old-time waltz. It cost half a crown to get in. The Arcadia has the best of musicians. Sometimes everyone would just stop dancing and all eyes would be on them”.

While the couple had little back then, Dino’s job came with some perks which included the lost property section of CIE.

“We didn’t have a lot but Mary was never short of scarves or umbrellas. That was what people left in the lost property back then. You had to pay four pence to claim an item back then and not everyone came back. Because the bus moved so fast people were always afraid of missing their stop and left things behind without thinking”.

It wasn’t long before Dino and Mary tied the knot at Turners Cross Church.

“When we married in 1962 we had seven pounds in our pocket”, Dino said.

The couple went on to have seven children: Christine, Sean, Thomas, Derek, Denise, Mary and Eoin 

“I had been working in Dwyers from the age of 14 and left the job at 22 when I got married. I’m lucky that I made so many friends there, some of whom are still with me after 70 years”.

The couple’s first fish and chip shop was on the side of their house.

“We started our first fish and chip shop in 1970. Jackie Lennox was doing very well at the time so I thought it might be a good idea. My brother brought a cash register into the shop and showed us how to work it. We put everything we had into the drawer which was seven and thruppence. Derek was six weeks old when we opened. We made £55 the night we opened. I bought the rotisserie from Jackie Lennox. I didn’t have to pay for it for a month because that was just the kind of person he was”.

DATE NIGHT

Dino and Mary always looked forward to “date night” every Tuesday.

“We were known as the party house. You could have 24 of us in the lounge on St Stephen’s Night. Every Tuesday night we would go to the Chinese or the cinema. Mrs Mac looked after the children. She loved the kids and they loved her”.

Neither of them dreamed their popularity would lead them to become Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress in 1991.

The entrepreneur explained how he initially got elected as a Fine Gael councillor.

“We were the only house in the area with a phone at the time which made us very popular. I became very popular for the deaths. I was always the first to know about them because St Finnbarr’s Hospital would ring me to inform me that someone had died. I would then visit their family to tell them their loved had passed away”.

Mary recalls finding one phone number written on her wallpaper.

“I can remember finding a number that someone had written on the wallpaper. I rang it back to see if I could find out who it was but it was the hospital that answered”.

LORD MAYOR

Dino’s local fame hit the stratosphere when he was appointed Lord Mayor.

“Our only complaint was that every second went too fast”, Dino said. “I loved being Lord Mayor and Mary loved her time as Lord Mayoress. Everything we did was for the good of Cork. We always wanted to do what was best for the city”.

The couple love nothing more than spending time with their sons and daughters and 15 grandchildren.

“All the children live two minutes away bar Sean”, Mary said. “He lives in Ballincollig so we always joke that he emigrated”.

Now boasting eight fast food outlets throughout Cork including in Bishopstown, Ballincollig, Douglas, Blackpool and Kinsale, Dino admits he “isn’t short”.

Nonetheless, it’s the little things money can’t buy that keep the duo content.

“Around 16 years ago I underwent heart surgery”, Dino said. “It was recommended that I exercise to regulate my heart so Mary and I waltzed around the kitchen to the radio in the mornings. We still dance together in the kitchen all the time. It’s a shame the dance halls went because Mary was always the most beautiful dancer. However, we will always enjoy waltzing around to Oldies and Irish in our kitchen”.