The love business

A North Clare woman is following in her father’s footsteps as she leaps into the business of love.
Claire Daly, daughter of Lisdoonvarna man Willie Daly, is in the process of launching a dating website and while she is moving matchmaking into the 21st century, she is not totally turning her back on the traditional method.

“My father has spent the last 40 years of his life in Lisdoonvarna, for the month of September at the Matchmaking festival. Thousands of people come there from all over the world looking to find their soul mate. Some do and some don’t but no matter what they all have great fun there. What he does is unique and he has his own way of matching people. His method is through phone and letters and through meeting people at the festival. I was going to join him and work alongside him but I soon realised he has his own way of doing things and it works. I did realise that it needed to be brought up to date so I have set up my own website thematchmakersdaughter.com. I am very excited about joining the matchmaking world,” the Ennistymon woman says.
According to Claire, never has matchmaking been more necessary. People are time poor and sometimes miss the more subtle opportunities that the cosmos presents them. Now more than ever singles must be proactive in their search for love.
“I was at a wedding recently and I met a girl who I know quite well. She asked me if I could find someone for her sister. The sister has a great job, a great car and a lovely house but has no partner. I have another friend who has a cousin who is a lawyer in the same position. There are all different people, educated people, ordinary people, business people who can’t find love and want someone to share their life with. There are a lot of shy 25-year-olds out there and a lot of under 30s who would need the help. I know a girl from Clare, and she is young and beautiful but wouldn’t be very confident with men,” she outlines.
“People don’t have the opportunity to meet other single people anymore. Very often you put on the fire in your own house of a winter’s evening and get very comfortable and then you realise that you want to meet someone. People have to be a bit more proactive and join classes or courses and get out there. If you are at home, no one is going to come knocking on your door,” she continues.
Singletons living in rural areas need more help finding a love match than their city counterparts, Claire asserts.
“A young person living in a small town who is fairly social and goes to the pub and night club can quickly find themselves too old to be going to the local disco and realise that the faces in the local pub are the same people that have always been there,” she claims.
“You get stuck in a rut. I love to dance but there aren’t the opportunities out there for people my age and older. You are nearly double the age of the people on the dance floor unless you go to a ‘social’ and even they are dying out. People in urban areas have more choice with regard to places to go out, but even in the cities there isn’t much in the line of night clubs for over 30s or 40s,” the 37-year-old comments.
The demographic of single people seeking partners has changed, Claire said.
“Where my father would have dealt with a lot of approaches from farmers in their 40s and 50s, nowadays all sorts of people look for a matchmaker. They come from all different walks of life and different ages, some may have been married or have a deceased loved one and after a period of time, they may realise they are lonely and might want a companion. After a certain age it is companionship that a lot people are looking for, someone to go on holidays with or to the cinema with. A lot of them would have reared children and are in the house on their own and maybe they just want company,” she says.
Like people, not all dating websites are the same, and Claire is quick to warn those thinking of entering the online dating game to exercise caution and ensure the validity of the website before revealing any personal or financial details.
Love, according to the fourth generation matchmaker, is the most important thing in a person’s life and there is no shame in seeking a little help finding it. While an initial attraction is important, she adds, a relationship shouldn’t be founded too deeply on aesthetics.
“You have to have a little spark, that little something in the beginning. Then you have to be a bit realistic, if the person is a good, kind, gentle, caring, generous person and treats you right, then you can’t go too far wrong,” Claire concludes.