From Athenry to Nigeria - to meet the in-laws with a TV crew in tow!

When Athenry resident Stephen Doggett first noticed his Nigerian neighbour, little did he think he would end in a village without electricity to meet her family for the first time before the full glare of the cameras.

Such is the circuitous path that love sometimes takes and in Stephen and Membe’s case that journey has certainly been eventful.

A native of Kildare, Stephen moved to Galway in 2003 after winning a temporary contract with Boston Scientific. Working as a process technician at the US medical devices multinational, the next year he moved into an estate in Doughiska when he spotted some talent.

Membe was a volunteer with the meals on wheels service provided by Cope. After some friendly exchanges between the next door neighbours, she asked him for a lift into town one day so she could start her shift.

He asked her out for a date to the cinema and the pair hit it off. Just a year later they got engaged and have since had two children – Sean (4) and Joshua (2). The family moved to Headford before settling down in Athenry.

Membe had not returned home since moving to Galway in 2004. They had often talked about making the trip but it never seemed to be the right time.

“We were trying to put the time aside and then there was always the money as well. It’s not cheap to fly over there and to get to her village is difficult enough,” he explained.

He spotted on an RTE website that Loose House Productions were in search of non-Irish people who were looking to return to their homelands with an Irish friend or partner to feature in the series, Welcome to My World.

See full story in this week's Connacht Tribune.