How I Met My Partner: Sinead said she didn't want an engagement ring but Kevin had one hidden all along

Kevin O’Donovan and Sinead Hallahan met in Clonakilty 28 years ago, and now both own businesses in the town.

Sinead told The Echo: “I’m from Innishannon originally, I came to Clonakilty to work in the leisure centre when it opened in the Park Hotel in 1996. Kevin was a member there so we got to know each other through that, but we met properly in the rugby club disco the next year.

“Kevin was finishing a PE and maths degree in Limerick, working at his parents’ hotel in Dunmore at the weekends so we would just spend time together and with friends when he came back at weekends.

“Then in 1998, we went to Australia for three months, travelled around and met friends out there. When we came back I went back to the leisure centre and Kevin finished his degree and taught for two years in Cork.

“Then he bought Scannell’s bar with his friend and business partner Shane Looney, they have been friends since they were four, so it’s kind of like his other romance!”

They bought the bar in 2002, and in 2003 Sinead returned to Australia for three months with friends, explaining that herself and Kevin were “on and off” at the time, but met again at a friend’s wedding in New Zealand.

“I was meant to be going on to South America after, but I didn’t, I came home with Kevin.” 

Sinead opened her clothing store Gooseberry in Clonakilty in 2004.

“We were together 10 years when we had our son Derry, he was born in August 2007. After 10 years we knew we weren’t going anywhere else, so we got married in Dunmore in January 2008.

“I always said I didn’t want an engagement ring, nothing fussy, then a few months before we got married I mentioned it, that I hadn’t gotten a ring and we had a small bit of a fight.

“He said ‘you said you didn’t want it’ I said I did want one etc, and he produced the ring right then on the spot, he’d had one hidden all the time.

“After 10 years together, with a three month old, living together, it was nice to get that bit of surprise.”

In 2009 they had their son Fionn, followed by their daughter Matilda in 2010, then their last daughter Emmy in 2018.

“In the early days when we had small kids it was very busy. Kevin worked a lot of weekends and there were plenty of nights I was ringing saying ‘Kevin please come home I’ve two screaming babies, rescue me’ so it was a lot of juggling.

“Just when things were getting calm, we threw another baby into it. We were building our house at the time, and we moved in the November before covid hit.

“Covid was lovely for us, we had some beautiful time in our new home with our children.”

Now, she said: “A lot of our time together is spent on the side of a pitch – the kids are very active in sport from hockey to rugby to GAA and Kevin coaches at the rugby club where it all started for the two of us.

“Now the kids are older, the three oldest ones can mind Emmy who’s six now, so we have built in babysitters!

“Clon is a great place to be, there’s so many nice walks, it’s great fun and we have great support from our families and friendships going back years.”