Twins have 'wow' factor

Sarah Saunderson • Published 16 Feb 2012 13:00 0 Comments

See also:

Flavours of Fermanagh are brought to New York

Award-winning celebrity chef Neven Maguire and his wife Amelda are celebrating the birth of their twin son and daughter Connor and Lucia.

The babies were born in Sligo General Hospital last Wednesday, a week earlier than their planned Valentine's Day birth date.

Their birth has brought delight for the couple who run the acclaimed MacNean House and Restaurant at Blacklion.

Neven, who has strong links to Enniskillen and studied at the then Fermanagh College, has hosted a series of cookery shows on RTE and is author to a number of best-selling cookery books.

The 38-year-old chef announced his babies' births last Wednesday on Twitter: "Wow! What a wonderful day. Amelda just gave birth to a boy and a girl. We are thrilled with our little angels. Thank God!" and later tweeted: "All good. Head is spinning."

He was also interviewed by Ryan Tubridy on Tubridy on 2fm from his home in Cavan. "I was so excited. I could not sit down. It was one of the best feelings. The best day of my life. It is incredible," he said.

Clearly proud of his wife, he said that she was "doing well" and in "great form". "Amelda has said she is so looking forward to bringing them home".

Describing the day of their birth, he told the RTE broadcaster, "I was awake at 6am and went into hospital. It was a really emotional day. I could not stop crying. I was so emotional and so excited. I was ready to explode with excitement. It was a feeling like I never had before. Amelda was due on Valentine's Day and because her blood pressure was high the doctors said 'these babies are ready to come'. She went in on Tuesday and had them on Wednesday. It all happened very quickly. She went down about 8.30am and 20 minutes, half an hour later, the babies were there... there were two great heads of hair, all black."

He spoke with delight about plans to learn how to bathe them, change nappies and feed them. And how it was "amazing" when he and Amelda and the twins spent an hour alone together in hospital. Lucia, who was born about five minutes after Connor, spent some time in special care as she had not been initially feeding well. Again it was on Twitter this week that he announced that the twins had been reunited.

Only he and Amelda knew that they were expecting a boy and a girl, even hiding the pink and blue baby clothes in the attic of their home so family would not see. It was only on the recent stag weekend for his twin brother David who is getting married in March that Neven revealed to him what gender the twins were.

He took time to remember his late father Joe who built up the MacNean Bistro business with his wife Vera. "I thank God and I thank Dad. He is looking over us," he said. Neven's father died in a road accident outside Sligo 13 years ago and it was in Sligo General where the twins were born that Mr. Maguire was initially treated. "I walked by the emergency exit where he had struggled to survive and said 'thanks a million Dad'," he said.

The twins are the 13th and 14th grandchildren for Neven's mother Vera and the first grandchildren for Amelda's parents.

This article appeared in Impartial Reporter 16 Feb 12

Return to the main index, get more from this section or browse our News archives.