Lisdoonvarna - Again!
Ladies, if you are really serious about finding love, an Irish accent turns you on, and the thought of moving does not terrify you, buy a ticket to Lisdoonvarna.
SARAH IN THE CITY: Luck of the Irish . . . ?
by Sarah Swain
I WOULDN’T normally trust a 65-year-old man with a Father Christmas beard to find me a date.
But I made an exception for Willie Daly.
I was in Lisdoonvarna, an Irish spa town with a special attraction - its annual matchmaking festival.
It’s a time for the single farmers of County Clare to attend to a much more pressing matter than milking - finding a wife.
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First set up to help farmers find love 150 years ago it still serves that purpose today - and a massive 40,000 people will arrive from all over the world during the five weeks of the festival which runs until October 5.
The local newspaper even reports a “Pamela Anderson lookalike” from Texas is in town looking for a hunky Irish husband - and she also happens to be an oil heiress.
As Lisdoonvarna’s official matchmaker, Willie knows what he’s talking about.
He’s matched hundreds of couples and claims to have a 90% success rate.
From a little booth in the corner of the Matchmaker Bar, Willie introduces people he thinks would be suitable for each other.
Men pay 20 euros to go on his books, while the cost for women is “negotiable”.
But could he help me?
“For you I would find a man with a strong build, daftish hair and blue eyes,” Willie told me.
“Not very tall, but strong. And a handsome man.”
And just half a glass of wine later, Willie beckoned me over to introduce me to someone.
“I’d like you to meet Sean.”
A small bloke with a cheeky smile got to his feet, swayed dangerously towards me like a Weeble Wobble.
His eyes lit up like the runway at Shannon airport when he saw me.
“Are you REALLY single?” he said in his lovely accent, not letting go of my hand for about 20 minutes.
But, after chatting with Sean, who had been enjoying plenty of the black stuff that night, I decided he was a little too young for me.
So I decided to take things into my own hands and look for a man in The Matchmaker myself.
But, you see, in Lisdoonvarna, the usual rules don’t apply.
It’s assumed everybody is there for one reason only - and there’s no time to lose.
An innocent trip to the toilet saw me get chatted up three times - but sadly they all looked like they’d parked their tractors at the door (as they probably had).
On another walk to the bar a dozen men looked up from their pints like meer cats, stretching their necks to make sure they didn’t miss a potential Mrs passing by.
Though, again, most of them looked like they’d just sailed in from Craggy Island.
But then I spied a stag night. I could tell they were a stag night as they’d all grown matching moustaches and were wearing cowboy hats in different animal prints.
And I wouldn’t usually approach a bunch of stags.
But I’m glad I did, as I was soon holding court with a hot lawyer from Dublin who looked a lot like American actor Adrien Brody.
His latest case, he told me, was between two rival hair growth drug companies - maybe that was the daftish hair Willie was on about.
He was a strong, silent type, taller than me - and he definitely did have blue eyes.
And I was thrilled when he let me gaze into them.
I might not have found a match for life but, to be sure, it was a great night...
# Thanks to http://www.tourismireland.com, http://www.fernhillfarm.net and http://www.matchmakerireland.com.
Publication date 19/09/08
Heh, I really doubt that all the girls would have same opportunities to find the ideal person, but who knows!!
Posted by Motorcycle Fairings on 11/11 at 09:16 AM