By Ian Youngs BBC News Online, Glaslough

Sir Paul and Heather McCartney had not exactly gone to extreme lengths to be secretive.

After all, they did make an appearance outside Castle Leslie on Monday to answer questions and greet fans.

Ferrying in the important stuff (Guinness)

But Tuesday was their wedding day and, understandably, they wanted it to be private.

The first part of the day saw blacked out minibuses go in and out of the castle gates along with waiters and waitresses.

But the few hundred local people and media were waiting to see which celebrities could be spotted arriving for the ceremony.

Nobody quite knew the schedule but the word on the street was that the service would take place at 1500 or 1530 BST.

The first guests were ferried in by luxury coach at about 1515, some in their best hats, others waving to the crowds.

Photographers and press tried to glimpse any famous faces. Twiggy was definitely in one of the nine coaches.

Ooh look chaps - we've got one

Bono was on the list of rumoured guests, as were Eric Clapton and Sir Elton John. But if they were there, they were not spotted.

The pack of photographers chased the car that they thought contained Michael Collins actor Aidan Quinn, but few noticed when Ringo Starr sped through the gates in a black Mercedes with blacked out windows.

He was said to have given a peace sign to onlookers.

And at first, the fans and media thought the helicopters buzzing above the castle grounds must have been ferrying in Sir Paul's showbiz pals.

But after some of them did not land, circling and hovering over Saint Salvator's church, it became obvious that they were cameramen.

Party

That was about as exciting as activities outside the gates got.

Unless, of course, you count the World Cup.

If you were in Glaslough when the Republic of Ireland beat Saudi Arabia, you would have been forgiven for thinking that there was only one party in town.

Wedding, what wedding?

And it was nothing to do with Sir Paul.

After the final whistle went to signal the Republic's qualification to the second round, both of the village's pubs emptied onto the streets.

The throng that emerged seemed to exceed the village's population of 250 and the numbers that should have been able to fit inside.

A cheering crowd was going wild beneath the banner that said: "Glaslough welcomes Sir Paul, Heather and guests."

Starwatchers

"You'll never beat the Irish," they told the world's media.

With the lack of visible celebrities, the football was the main cause for celebration for most locals.

Looks like the back of a bus, that one

Those that remained behind the barriers on the road leading to the estate turned their attentions on the TV news reporters who formed a line opposite the castle gates.

The presence of these familiar faces left no-one in any doubt that there had been a full-scale media invasion.

And the US reporters lived up to their stereotypes of being big loud men and immaculate women with big smiles and bright jackets.

CNN's Richard Quest was the star among starwatchers with his trenchcoat, red umbrella and booming voice.

Applause

View from the helicopter

One onlooker suggested that he was so loud because CNN did not use a satellite, just two tin cans and a very long piece of string.

It was very surreal to think that every time he barked at his camera, millions of people across the US were having their breakfast to pictures of him in this small sleepy Irish village.

But there was little else for the massed onlookers to watch.

By the time NBC's Dawna Friesen filed a morning report, she was surrounded by a crowd who applauded as she signed off.

Even if the residents of Glaslough did not get much of a glimpse of the stars in their midst, they certainly never before had so many people watching them and their village.