CARLOW and Chicago came together at the Cathedral of the Assumption on Saturday when Sorcha Reddy and Al Gromada tied the knot in a nuptial themed on the era of mobs and gangsters in the USA.

Sorcha from Chapelstown, Carlow and Al, a native of the Windy City whose family roots are in Poland, entered a civil partnership in Chicago two years ago, but Sorcha hankered for an Irish church wedding. And it wasn’t just any wedding, but one in which the guests were attired in 1920s style, when another Al – Capone – ruled the Chicago underworld as the world’s most notorious mobster.

Sorcha kept her Al waiting some 20 minutes at the altar before her arrival in a Brenchley Convertible, a 1930s sedan reminiscent of the type of car used by gun-toting American gangsters of the Prohibition era. The vintage car was provided by All Events Limousines, Dunmore East, Co Waterford.

The traditional Here comes the bride was abandoned in favour of the lovely Irish folk song She moved through the fair. Sorcha’s father Matt Reddy proudly walked his daughter up the aisle, dressed a suit, white scarf and spats, the classic trademark shoes of the mobster.

Many of the lady guests were dolled out in the flapper dresses and distinctive hairstyles of the ‘gangster’s moll’, while the men wore an impressive variety of gangster hats, scarves, suits and shoes – black and white stripes and red being the predominant colours of the day. A number of young boys carried imitation Tommy guns, as did some of the adult men.

It was a first for the 184-year-old ecclesiastical seat of the diocese of Kildare & Leighlin to host a gangster-themed wedding and it was also a first for Fr Ruairi O’Domhnaill, Adm, who was officiating at his first wedding in the cathedral.

Sorcha, who is daughter of Matt and Frances (née O’Brien) Reddy, is one of a family of five children. She has two sisters Dawn (Cois Abhann, Burrin Road), Emma (Perth, Australia) and brothers Glen (Mortarstown, Carlow) and Gavin (Tullow Road). The couple reside in Chicago, where Sorcha is employed in the IT sector, while Al is a plumber by trade.

Sorcha and Al are in Ireland on a month-long stay, the highlight of which was, of course, Saturday’s gangster-themed wedding ceremony.

After Sorcha and Al had said ‘I do’ and had signed the register, the 70 ‘gangsters’ and ‘mobsters’ made their way to the Woodford Dolmen Hotel for the wedding reception, no doubt having to surrender their ‘hardware’ at the front door before being admitted!