WELL what serendipity. Just as Parrot was calling to congratulate Hayley O’Connor, Ladbrokes PR manager, on the announcement of her engagement, she told us, thrillingly, that she was at that moment in McDowells Jewellers, O’Connell St, Dublin choosing her ring!

The lucky man is Fergal Feeney, originally from Sligo and now working in finance in London. Happily, as Hayley explained, “he has a keen interest in racing and we met at the 2015 Punchestown Festival. In fact Punchestown is the venue for making a match as two other Ladbrokes colleagues met the girls they went on to marry at Punchestown, David Williams and Daragh Fitzpatrick.