The Irish matchmaker finding love outside of apps

Willie Daly is a third-generation matchmaker in County Clare who has brought more than 3,000 couples together

For singletons endlessly swiping on dating apps, a back-to-basics approach might be the antidote to curing a lovesick heart.

Thousands have made the pilgrimage to Lisdoonvarna, in the Republic of Ireland, with hopes of finding love.

Its matchmaking festival has been going for 170 years and is the biggest singles festival in Europe.

Willie Daly is the man responsible for keeping the art of matchmaking alive in the County Clare town.

He's a third-generation matchmaker, who first learned the art passed down to him by his father and grandfather when he was a teenager.

But unlike his predecessors, the Lisdoonvarna native has had to alter his skills as societal attitudes towards love and marriage changed.

“My grandfather died in 1902, and his matchmaking in general would have been at horse fairs, cattle fairs, sheep fairs, weddings and funerals,” he told BBC News NI.

“They wouldn’t have been parochial - there wasn’t phones, there wasn’t cars.”

‘Try the magic’

Over his 60-year tenure as a matchmaker, Willie has seen generations become more career-focused, as finding love slips down the priority list.

“I think work is a wonderful ambassador to life, but I think that people should make a very big effort [to ensure] that love is a major part of it as well,” he said.

“People want happiness, they want to be loved, they want a family life and they want children.”

Lisdoonvarna is a town situated close to Ireland's iconic Cliffs of Moher

Willie said his clientele spans every age group, and that they all have one thing in common - all of them want to experience the magic of love.

“You don’t have to look like Danny DeVito or Brad Pitt or anyone like that, or Pamela Anderson, there’s love for everybody.

“It’s just a wonderful feeling to just feel love in your life and to be in love, it would be a pity to miss that.

“Love doesn’t have age limits."

Triple trouble

Willie claims he is responsible for matching more than 3,000 couples and while he often doesn’t see the result of his work, each encounter he has feels like “winning the lotto”.

“Recently I was walking up through a horse fair in some part of Cork or Galway,” he recalled.

“This guy was coming down, a tall, young man who seemed to stand out higher than a good few people and he was shouting: ‘Willie Daly, Willie Daly, look at the trouble you’ve got me into.’

“He was walking down the town with two children, and a stroller with triplets in it and a very good looking young woman and he says: ‘I must admit you know, you introduced us about seven years ago in Lisdoonvarna.’"

Every September, The Matchmaker Bar in the town fills with singletons hoping to find love

The traditional Lisdoonvarna Matchmaking Festival, which began in 1857, takes place each September and attracts a mixture of people.

Throughout the month-long fete, music rings through the town each day.

For those looking to meet the one, the first dance is “your first chance for love and romance”, Willie added.

“I think a lot of it is the people who attend it are just fantastic, they’re lovely, friendly people, and people coming alone, they’ll never feel alone.”

Many of the festival attendees don’t just find romantic connections, but friendships too, often leading to groups returning every year.

Lucky love book

Matchmaking skills are not the only thing that have been passed down to Willie by his father and grandfather.

Once the festival wraps up, he travels across the country and abroad with his grandfather’s book brimming with dating stories.

“I call it a lucky love book [because] it brings happiness and love to people, and it puts people’s minds and body in a good place,” he says.

“The story of the book is if you touch it with both hands between 11 and 14 seconds, you’ll be in love and married within six months.”

Country music star Nathan Carter (left) is among the hopefuls who have touched the lucky love book over the years

One woman who touched the book told him she had a chance encounter with a man shortly after arriving home to England.

She went into her local grocers' shop and accidentally knocked some tin cans onto the floor.

“A man bent down and picked them up at the same time as her, and now they’re getting married in early December,” Willie says.

Even though Willie’s lucky love book has helped singletons open up their hearts, there are plenty of love stories still waiting to be written.