FLYING Forkhill and Armagh defender Patrick Burns and fiancée Orla McKay finally tied the knot recently after the global pandemic had cast doubt over their wedding day at St Mary's Church, Burren.
The reception numbers at the Four Seasons Hotel in Carlingford were restricted to 50 guests. Burns has established himself as one of the best defenders in Armagh and Ulster over the past number of seasons. In the early throes of lockdown, Burns was interviewed by The Irish News and explained how he used that period to reflect on things.
“Playing inter-county football is a selfish existence - there’s no point in denying it - it’s a selfish endeavour. But the life that I’m living has a shelf-life too," he said. “I don’t anticipate doing this for a long time – you see fellas playing until they’re 33 or 34 – I don’t think I could keep it up for that long.
“When you look at it, I could be away from 6am to 11.30pm, that’s a full day where Orla has barely been able to get in contact with me. So, this lockdown period is a good chance to have some quality time together."
Burns is hoping to resume his inter-count career in October as the Orchard men try to secure promotion into Division One.
On lockdown itself, he said “I wouldn’t necessarily say that this is nature getting back at us and telling us that we need to change our ways, although I would like to take it that way, but I don’t necessarily think that’s the cause. I do think that it’s an opportunity to take stock of how we were all living and whether that’s sustainable.
“And I’m not even talking about the environment, just generally: family life, community life, those kind of things.
“Maybe we'll learn during this time, we’ll enjoy spending more time with our families, enjoy this slower pace to life because there’s nothing wrong with that."
