WATCH: Portadown couple celebrate 70th wedding anniversary and share their tips for a long and happy marriage

George and Muriel Quinn marked the grand occasion of their platinum anniversary on Saturday with an enjoyable family get-together. They are among just a very few couples in the world to reach this rare landmark.

The couple first met in the Regal cinema, where George was an usher and Muriel worked in the ticket office.

George’s friends bet him a packet of cigarettes that he couldn’t get Muriel to say ‘yes’ to a date, but she did accept his offer and George won the bet. Their first outing together was to Summerson’s cinema and romance blossomed after that.

The couple were married in Portadown on March 2, 1954.

The first place they lived was in a flat above Bassey’s fish and chip shop in Edenderry, before moving to Laurelvale where they lived for 22 years from 1958 to 1980.

George and Muriel moved to Thomas Street in Portadown in December 1980 which was their home for nearly 40 years until they downsized to a bungalow in Brownstown after raising their four children – first born son George who was born in 1954, followed by their first daughter Eileen born in 1955. Another son, Tom, was born in 1958 and Reggie was born in 1963.

Now both in their 90s, George and Muriel have reflected on seven decades together as man and wife and when asked for their secret to such a remarkably long marriage, they replied: “Making sure the wife is always the boss and to never go to bed on an argument or at the very least without saying ‘I love you’ and to chose each other every day.”

They are now kept busy and loved unconditionally by all the family, including their six grandchildren, Allan, Amanda, Barbara-Anne, Dawson, Alex and Terri-Jane and their seven great grandchildren, Saskia, Cheyenne, David, Harley, Iveigh, Molly, Bonnie and Heather.

George and Muriel are now one of an estimated 0.1% of couples to reach such an incredible milestone, which really makes them one in a million.

The remarkable couple have earned their place in the record books alongside the late Queen Elizabeth II and her husband Prince Philip, who celebrated their platinum anniversary on November 20, 2017.