How I met my partner: Rain-soaked proposal didn’t dampen Cork couple’s spirits

LAURIE and Sonya O’Dwyer met in secondary school 25 years ago, and after a long friendship, a calamitous proposal, and a surprise wedding now run the hugely successful Cork Whiskey Festival every March.

“We met in Scoil Stiofáin Naofa on the Tramore Rd, Laurie was completing his Leaving Cert and I was repeating mine,” said Sonya.

“We were in that school together for about a year, then I went to London to do my undergrad and Laurie stayed to join the army.”

They stayed in touch and were friends for about five years, with Laurie saying “it just took a while for the cogs to fall into place”.

“We were friends so we were going to gigs, socialising together anyway — one night it just kind of happened,” he said.

Sonya said: “When he says it happened, he means he finally got up the courage.”

Sonya was in London at the time, and for a year they flew back and forward “but that last year we got fairly sick of airports every month”. In 2004, she moved back to Cork, and they got an apartment together in Glanmire, with Sonya working in a legal practice and Laurie serving several missions abroad.

Laurie decided to propose, concocting a romantic plan with champagne and fireworks in Crosshaven.

However, he said: “It started absolutely lashing, I was trying to be all romantic and it just went to pot,” so he proposed indoors, and Sonya said yes.

Sonya said: “Whilst we were engaged, I got pregnant with our son Riley, and after he was born we decided to get married very quickly, because we’d put all our wedding plans on hold.

“So we invited everybody to our son’s christening in Collins Barracks, but it was actually our wedding!”

Their guests gathered in the church for their surprise wedding, and then they went back to the Metropole for a reception, in a room that the couple would later use for their Whiskey Festival.

Laurie explained how that venture came about.

“We were up in Belfast for their whiskey week in 2022, driving back after a really great few days and chatting about how good it was and why there wasn’t anything like that in Cork,” he said.

Sonya added: “On the four-hour drive home from Belfast we started discussing if someone was to set it up who would do it and where would it be. By the time we parked at our house in Glanmire, it turned out that we were doing it.”

That was July 2022. They had tickets on sale in September, and the first Cork Whiskey Festival had 34 events, 22 brands, and three sponsors.

They partnered with a range of Cork bars and venues and drew on Laurie’s connections from his Whiskey Chats podcast — the next year was even bigger.

Laurie said that he got involved in the whiskey community after getting a bar manager job in Collins Barracks.

Sonya said: “And I just got dragged along for ride.

“Initially it wasn’t something I saw myself being interested in, but after a few festivals and masterclasses, I enjoyed the friends you make and the knowledge they have, you meet some really cool, very clever people.

“Laurie is the creative side and I’m more the business and logistics and organisation side,” she said, adding that knowing their strengths is why they get on so well while organising the festival.

Between their full-time jobs, spending time with their son, and the festival, they are kept very busy. They take two weeks off after the festival each year and are then straight back into organising the next one.

“We’re very proud of it. As much work as it is, we’re delighted we can give it to Cork and it’s great that it’s something we can do together,” said Sonya.