'JAMES is such a goody-goody in some ways," says artist Dolores Lyne, shooting a teasing look at her husband, James C Harrold. "It's like I married a prefect!"

Dolores jokes that it's gas she ended up with someone like James, as she was hanging out with rock bands when they first met. None the less, clearly she's mad about James, the witty and colourful arts officer for Galway City Council. They're both bursting with a joie de vivre that's lovely to behold, and their zest for life is only rivalled by their enthusiasm for one another.

Though Dolores is from Kerry and James from Tipperary, they were both drawn to Galway because of its thriving arts scene. They first met in Wexford in 1989. Dolores was a final-year art student at Waterford RTC and James was on his second day running the Wexford Arts Centre.

The students were preparing for an exhibition at Wexford Arts Centre, and when Dolores arrived at the exhibition space, she immediately caught James's eye.

"Well, first of all, she was wearing an amazing antique linen dress, and I thought she looked great," he explains. "She had this fantastic smile that was like sunshine lighting up a room. I had to behave myself though and concentrate, because it was my first exhibition in the new job."

As they got talking over the next few days, Dolores explained to James that she was planning to move to Galway. James had studied and worked there, so he offered to help her with information and contacts.

"I remember that he was really friendly," she says. "He came down to Waterford the following week and we met for a drink. He was supposed to see a play afterwards, but we got on so well that he never got to see it! And I ended up moving to Wexford rather than Galway."

What Dolores liked about James was his energy and idealism, combined with a huge passion for the arts.

"He's strong and gentle and was bubbling with ideas and contacts," she says. "And he was so interested in what I was doing and what I was about."

And James says he fell for Dolores's "fantastic personality". He was also impressed that she was such a serious artist, who really wanted to get ahead.

Dolores came from a sporting family in Killarney. Her dad, Jackie Lyne, played football for Kerry, and her first cousin is Pat Spillane.

Her mother was in charge of the VIP bar at Shannon Airport in the days when travelling was a luxury. She looked after the likes of Orson Welles, Ian Fleming and Ava Gardner when they were fog-bound at the airport.

"She has a very tolerant approach to the relaxing benefits of a stiff drink in thrilling company, which makes her the perfect mother-in-law," says James.

Once in Wexford, Dolores worked on her art, and also became very useful to James in other ways. She is, he says, a great techie and good with everything to do with drills.

"James had the equivalent of a female roadie in me when he was touring exhibitions or during the Opera Festival," says Dolores. "All of the staff would already be working to the maximum, but he would always want to do something extra. This, I soon came to learn, was normal for James."

After that, James and Dolores moved to Galway, where James took up the position of arts officer. Although he actually studied law, he was seduced by the arts in college, and went to work with the street-performance company Macnas as a writer, performer and general administrator.

Back in Galway, Dolores continued painting, and also helped James out for the first few years by hanging paintings for his exhibitions. It was all done on a voluntary capacity, as budgets then were tight, and all sorts of madcap adventures were had.

For instance, she recalls being dropped off on Inis Oirr by her irrepressible husband and his team, who then couldn't get back for three days because of fog. With a show opening on the island and arts critics due in as soon as the fog lifted, there was nothing for it but to pull the whole thing together herself.

Dolores went to London for a year to study theatre at the Motley Design Theatre Course. She would subsequently win an Irish Times/ESB Award for Best Theatre Design, for Island Theatre Company's Pigtown.

Before she left, James realised he would have to do something to make sure she came back. He was in Boston with Sharon Shannon at the time, and he confided in her that he was going to propose to Dolores.

He got down on one knee halfway across the Ha'penny Bridge, as Dolores was in Dublin doing props for the film How To Cheat in the Leaving Cert. Dolores went off and did her course, not that James sat in and pined for her. He went out, he says, an incredible 130 nights in a row.

They were married in 1998, and live outside the city with their dog Oscar. They don't have children yet, but would welcome them if they were to come along. James and Dolores are both involved in the Galway Arts Festival at the moment, and are very excited about its programme of music, theatre comedy and arts; Dolores is the curator for the festival.

She also has her own art exhibition called Connemara Rocks at the White Room in Liosban, which was opened by Sunday Independent cartoonist Tom Mathews. Some of the pieces are 6ft by 4ft and are scenes of her beloved Connemara landscape.

"Fun would be the word to describe our relationship," says Dolores. "I go to lots of things with James, because he will always know the most interesting things that are on. And if I didn't go, I wouldn't see him, because sometimes I have to make him write me into his diary. He's like a little dog -- you just let him out in the morning and he has this amazing enthusiasm for life."

'Connemara Rocks', paintings by Dolores Lyne, is at the White Room Gallery, Liosban, Galway until July 25.

The Galway Arts Festival runs until July 26. See www. galwayartsfestival.com

- Andrea Smith