Wedding bells in the offing for Alderman

The lucky fellow is marrying Patricia Magee in an family service at Clooney Hall Methodist Church, and he is very much looking forward to the occasion, and the honeymoon, which is to Mexico. It will be a wonderful way for him and his bride to unwind after the frenetic run-up to the elections and the wedding preparations.

“I’m looking forward to getting married and getting life into a more settled pattern,” said Joe.

His marriage is the second of three big events this year if you include the elections - the third is his 60th birthday in November.

“The wedding will be attended by family and friends. Given my age you don’t want the same things you did when you were 20 and getting married,” says Joe earnestly.

It is not long before his famous sense of humour surfaces, and he adds: “We loaned Kate Middleton the dress and Pat says we have to get it back and get it cleaned for the wedding, and we are getting a bit concerned about the tiara. We have agreed we are going to wait for years before starting a family!”

Joe’s bestman will be Lawrence ‘Hutchy’ Hutchins, whom Joe has known for 55 years while Patricia’s best friend, Wendy Stewart, will be her bridesmaid.

“Wendy Stewart, who was formerly King, used to live in the Dark Lane two streets away from me when I was small,” he says, still tickled by the coincidence.

Asked how he met his bride, Joe revealed that after some time away from Clooney Hall Methodist Church he eventually returned ‘to the fold’. Sitting alone with his thoughts he found himself sitting in the church near people he knew: “I sat on a pew and looked round and the people on the pew behind knew me and there was this other lady on the pew and I got into conversation with her and it was Pat. After that I said ‘Hello’ or Good morning’, that sort of thing, and we got into chatting. One Sunday I said ‘What are you doing for lunch?’ and she said she had nothing planned so I said I was going down the street ad invited her to go. We sat down and talked for about four hours.”

Pat, who is by all accounts a kitchen goddess when it comes to home baking, is making her own wedding cake, which the couple will cut at their reception in the White Horse Hotel, Campsie, and after the fuss is over the couple will be slipping away for the honeymoon of a lifetime to the Lazy River in Mexico.

His irrepressible sense of humour surfaces again: “I was selected last week and in three weeks’ time I’m hoping to be selected!”