Lisdoonvarna Matchmaking Festival

If you’re looking for an Irish mate, this is the one for you – Europe’s largest Matchmaking Festival draws throngs of people to Lisdoonvarna each year, and if you cannot find that special person at one of the many events, there are matchmakers on hand to assist.

Festival in full swing, by fyunkie

It’s an extraordinary event, with dancing and music beginning most days at noon and continuing non-stop into the small hours of the morning.

Having fun at ‘Lisdoon’ is a serious business! Age is no barrier – those attending range from 18 to 80, and the older participants are often first up and last to stagger home to bed at night.

The best known of the matchmakers is Willie Daly, who deals in horses when not dealing in love and who claims to have been instrumental in getting hundreds, if not thousands, of couples to the altar.

Don’t go expecting a sophisticated or upmarket event – this is where many Irish farmers traditionally go to find a wife, though they are more likely to resort to the Internet these days, and you will mostly meet ordinary Irish people who are in town purely for the ‘craic’.

Matchmaking in progress, by fyunkie

Some nods to change are incorporated – there are speed-dating events these days – but mostly the modus operandi is to provide lots of opportunities for people to get together at dances, sessions and in the pubs.

Each weekend the events are focused on some activity, from horse racing on the opening weekend, country music the following one, three weekends devoted to dancing then the final fling where the Queen of the Burren and Mr Lisdoonvarna are crowned.

It’s all great fun and it’s well worth dropping by for a day or so – but only the determined or the desperate will stand the pace for more than a couple of days!

Lisdoonvarna Map