Lisdoonvarna, Ireland — For nearly two centuries, a small Irish town has lured singletons to a festival every September that sees hopeful romantics seek their one true love.
The monthlong matchmaking festival that started in 1857 has become a global event, attracting over 60,000 visitors annually to the rugged landscape of County Clare, and specifically to the tiny town of Lisdoonvarna.
The festival even broke into American pop culture, featuring several years ago on the sitcom “Schitt’s Creek.”
In many ways, it’s an old-world solution to modern dating. There is no app and no algorithms, just a chance to meet a match organically, through Irish traditional dancing and music, speed dating — or through the matchmaking skills of 83-year-old local legend Willie Daly.
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Daly’s grandfather helped start the festival, and his family has been pairing couples for three generations. In his father’s and grandfather’s day, many Irish towns and villages had traditional matchmakers, but Daly is now believed to be among the last, if not the last, keeping the tradition alive.
If prospective suitors wish to find a match through Daly, they meet with him and fill out a form outlining their hobbies, personality traits, and what they’re looking for in a partner. Through his somewhat mystical personal intuition, Daly will then find a match and send the pair off on a first date.
“When I’m walking down the street, often I’d meet people … two or three couples said, ‘You fixed us up 30 years ago, or 40 years ago,'” Daly told CBS News last month. “We’re lucky here. Now this is a wonderful festival, and it’s a great provision of opportunity — the opportunity to get married is very consistent in it. Music and dancing all day long, you know, for 30 days.”
In a tattered old book, Daly keeps records of the hopeful matches he’s arranged over the years, and local legend has it that if you place two hands on the book, you’ll be married within six months.
Daly’s image is literally etched on the front of a local watering hole — The Matchmaker Bar, where singles gather every year to drink, dance and try to meet their future spouse — in a testament to his stature in Lisdoonvarna.
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CBS News attended the festivities at the pub in September and spoke with young attendees about what they were looking for in an ideal partner.
“I suppose a bit of loyalty, a bit of values, but also a bit of craic, you can’t beat a bit of craic,” said one young woman, using a common Irish phrase that translates roughly to good fun.
“Someone agricultural. I am agricultural myself … we’re farming at home, we have a sheep farm at home. That’s what I’m looking for at the moment,” an Irishman said about his hunt for love.
Another attendee, Erica, told CBS News she had traveled all the way from Colombia for the festival.
“It’s the opportunity to meet people the right way, face-to-face,” she said. “Those apps, I mean, I’m not saying that people are hiding anything, but right now, just having the contact, just to sit there and talk to people makes [dating] a whole different event.”
American Mary Timby from Colorado came to the village last year and ended up going viral, garnering over 2 million views after posting online about how she found love at the matchmaking festival.
She returned this year, and is now an ambassador for the event.
“I first heard about the festival on ‘Schitt’s Creek.’ It was during COVID. I was huddled in a blanket on my couch and I Googled it and I thought, ‘Oh, it’s a real festival. Wouldn’t it be fun if I just went someday?'” she said.
“My partner is from Ennis, here in County Clare, and we met at The Matchmaking Bar,” she said. “I loved the Irish accent, and he just, was funny. He made me laugh and we connected right away, so we exchanged information.”
But Timby’s story shows that even matchmaking with nearly 170 years of proven success can benefit from modern technology.
“He found me on social media the next day,” she said of her match. “And the rest is history.”