The Matchmaker Festival

Every September, the little town of Lisdoonvarna, about an hour from Galway City, focuses on love in a very big way. The entire town takes part in a Matchmaking Festival and people from all over the country and all over the world go there to be be matched. As you an imagine there are a lot of lonely Irish farmers who need a bit of a push to gt going and a lot of women looking for love. 

And for the last 50 years Willie Daley has been doing his best to make those matches. He's the town's matchmaker. In fact he's a third generation matchmaker and he has the book to prove it. In fact that book is about eight inches thick and is held together with a shoestring and some tape. But it works.

After paying him 20 Euro and filling out his questionnaire asking what I could bring to the table of a relationship and what I was looking for.

About a half hour later, Willie took his big book to the

he instructs participants to take a spin on the dance floor. The Matchmaker Bar is packed the entire month and he does his magic from a foyer near the bar.

"I'm always watching to see who will match with this one, or that one," he tells me. "Put one hand on this book and you'll have a grand time, put two on it and you'll fall in love in six months time! Now, what might you be looking for in a match?" he asks me. 

"Well, Willie," I say, “Now that I see that the magic is in the dancing, I think I'll be good just watching. I'm not much or a dancer myself."

So the trip to the Matchmaking Festival was a bit anti-climactic for me. It was a fun packed night and it dragged on into the early morning hours.

Now I'm a bit old for that, but I found my perfect match when I got up to my room in the hotel.

A big old bathtub. Something I've missed since I moved into the wee house here. And something that never disappoints.

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