This week, Miriam O Callaghan meets Dr Pat Wallace, Director of the National Museum and his wife, the artist and printmaker Siobhan Cuffe.
Pat and Siobhan tell Miriam how they met when Siobhan pitched for the franchise of the shop in the National Museum. By his own admission, Pat had no intention of giving her the franchise, but they enjoyed each other's company. Eventually, Pat proposed but at Siobhan's insistence, formally asked Siobhan's mother for her daughters hand in marriage.
The couple are from different backgrounds. Siobhan is from a large Dublin family, where her father, an architect, met her American mother while studying architecture at Harvard. They share an interest in visual things and the interest in the look of things was part of their family conversation.
Pat is from Askeaton in Limerick where his father was a blacksmith. But he had ambitions for all his children, including his eldest, Pat. Through scholarships, Pat and three other siblings all went to University.
Pat's father loved politics and was loyal to the memory of Michael Collins and emotional when John F Kennedy won the US Presidency. Siobhan's family is related through marriage to the Kennedys - her mother was a sister of Ethel Kennedy, Robert Kennedy's wife. But there was little interest in things American in their home when she was growing up. Her mother had lost both her parents in a plane crash in the 1950s and in moving to Ireland, turned away from American and the unresolved grief around the death of her parents.
Siobhan studied architecture but preferred being an artist and became a printmaker. Pat became an archaeologist, working most notably on the long excavation of the Viking site at Wood Quay in Dublin. In more recent times, Siobhan has conserved a Gaelic Tower house in County Clare which is available to rent. The project has given her a sense of achievement and this year, she was invited to join Ireland's Blue Book.
But the restoration of Ballyportry Tower House woudln't have been possible without the loyalty of Chancer, their rescue dog. Siobhan explains how it was love at first sight between Pat and Chancer and how after Chancer's death, no other dog has filled the void, despite the best efforts of their current rescue dog, Daisy.
Siobhan and Pat met later in life and as a result they have a more independent relationship, but still get great pleasure doing things together like travelling.
Pat is due to retire soon, and reflects on the unique privilege it is to be the last person through the Treasury in the National Museum most evenings where the great artifacts that shape Irish identity, like the Tara Brooch, are displayed.
As an archaeologist, Pat is not religious but has a great respect for how each generation have used their parcel of time. He doesn't believe in an afterlife - his heaven is on earth. Siobhan, on the other hand, has a small seed of faith and believes this is connected to being an artist. When she makes something, struggling over a long time, with very unexpected and beautiful results, it makes her believe in something bigger than herself.