Love can pop up at the most unusual times and in the strangest of places, as sports presenter Gráinne McElwain knows all too well.

Gráinne, alongside Aisling O'Reilly, is delivering this year's GAA championship on GAA+ and has each football and hurling fan glued to the TV.

However, for the Monaghan woman, it was a change in her career and a drive to chase her dream job that opened up many doors for her career and her personal life.

The big jump

Working as a history and Irish teacher in Dublin, she stumbled across a job advertisement for a sports researcher at Nemeton TV Productions in Waterford.

Finally coming to terms with the fact that she was not prepared to spend her life in the classroom, she made the jump.

'Six weeks later, I'd left my full-time pensionable job, moved to Waterford, and met my future husband as well, so it was a really good move,' she said.

However, not everyone thought her idea was the best. 'People who were full-time pensionable jobs who've been there 40 years, and a lot of them turned around to me and said, "Are you mad?'"'

How they met:

Gráinne told EVOKE that when she went down for the interview, her future husband, Gearóid, was one of the first people she met.

'He was on the interviewing panel when he was interviewing me for the job, himself and three other people. So that became the running joke when we were getting married.' Many were joking with them and saying, '"Oh yeah, that's how she got the job?"'

However, laughing, she reminded us that 'there were four people on the panel, but he was one of them, so that was always the running joke.'

First Date:

From the start, Gráinne says: 'We just clicked straight away, you know, you're at that age, I was 25, 26 when I met him, and, we were single. We weren't heartbroken over anybody else at that time, and he was in the same boat, so it just worked.'

'We're both very big into sport and would have worked on rugby together, soccer, swimming, horse racing, loads of different sports.'

Their first date was in a restaurant in Dungarvan. The couple living in a small town headed a little farther away as they didn't want the possibility of bumping into anyone from work.

Marriage

After four years of dating, Gearóid proposed on the River Shannon in Limerick on our 4th anniversary of when we met.

The big day was held in her home church of St Dympna’s church in Tydavnet in Co Monaghan and the presenter admits that even in the wedding speech, it was mentioned how Gráinne had impressed on particular interviewer on the panel that day when she got the job - telling us that it is a running joke in their family.

In 2008, the couple tied the knot and are celebrating their 17th wedding anniversary this year.

Family life and a busy career

Gearóid MacDonncha went on to become Head of RTÉ Radió na Gaeltachta, and Gráinne continued to go from strength to strength with her career.

The couple have three children: Éabha,13 years old, Ferdia, who is 12 years old, and Eoghan, who is 10.

But with mum and dad heavily involved in sports, it is no surprise that their children are just as dedicated as they are.

The only trouble is that when it comes to supporting a team, it's four against one with the children and her husband from Galway and Gráinne from Monaghan - but sure, when it comes to sport, all is fair in love and war.