MO KELLY, WHO spent many childhood summers in Malta with her family, chose to be married in St Paul’s Cathedral in Mdina, when she married Mark Murphy there on September 20th.
Mo, a DJ and artist, is the daughter of Paul Kelly and the late Dolores Kelly, both teachers. The youngest in a family of four, she attended Sutton Park School in north Co Dublin and studied fine arts at the National College of Art Design. Well known on the Irish club and promotional scene, she has also had a residency at Zinc in Dubai, and gigs as diverse as Artmosh for Nixon in France, Full Moon in Thailand, Speakerbox and 93 Feet East in London
Mark, a guitar player and music producer, is the son of former broadcaster Mike Murphy and his first wife, Eileen. He grew up in Foxrock with his three sisters, Elaine, Carol and Dee, and attended Blackrock College before embarking on a musical career, touring with Naimee Coleman, Engine Alley and Sinead O’Connor.
He had a brief change of heart and worked for a spell as a chef in La Stampa restaurant before returning to music and touring with the Devlins for a number of years. He now has a company called the Sound Butlers with business partner and collaborator Rod Morris, and they concentrate on music for advertising, television and film.
The couple have been together for 11 years and met originally through mutual friends. Marriage came into clearer focus after Mo’s mother’s death, and last December, Mark took Mo to Spain for her birthday and proposed. He gave her a band of 10 diamonds to represent the 10 years they had been together, and her mother’s diamond, which her sister had found on Mo’s birthday, was later reset to match. “So my ring finger is blingin’.”
The wedding was a three-day event, “although we partied pretty much the week before and after,” says the bride. The wedding proper began with a boat trip around the island on Friday and a barbecue on Saturday, so that their guests were all well acquainted by the time they gathered for the actual ceremony on Sunday.
Their reception was held in Castello Zammitello in Mgarr, a Norman-style castle with a walled courtyard. “I loved the idea of our guests eating al fresco at one long table, Mediterranean family-style,” she explains. “We had a string quartet playing during dinner and then decks were set up for all my DJ friends. There were many memorable moments, but the fireworks topped it off nicely.”
The couple spent two weeks in Malta for the wedding and then travelled on to Naples and Captiva in Florida, and to the Bahamas, ending it all with a stopover in New York on the way home. They are currently househunting in Dublin.
