‘Their love is infectious. They’re just so happy’
First Dates Ireland’s Alice Marr has opened up about the“heartwarming” moment some of the successful couples from the show returned to the restaurant — and the biggest lessons she has learned from her time on the hit reality TV show.
The First Dates Ireland restaurant threw open its doors again earlier this month as the eighth season began on RTE Two. New episodes air on Thursday night at 9.30pm.
And Alice — who has been on the show since the first season in 2016 — told Chic how“brilliant”it is that it’s eight seasons in ,“and it doesn’t feel in any way stale — it’s amazing”.
The Clare woman also opened up about what viewers can expect as the rest of the season unfolds.
She said,“one of the highlights of the rest of the season is that we’re having a few of the couples who’ve been successful in love come back one evening. They’re coming in to have a toast and another meal, and to celebrate the fact that they’ve managed to find love through the First Dates restaurant.
“We’ve got Shez and Carla who, I think they’ve been together about two years now, are engaged and getting married this November. Their love is infectious; when they came back in, it was gorgeous. They’re just so happy together.
“We have Avril and Shane, who were a successful couple that met during the pandemic years — that was brilliant that they still managed to connect over the two-metre long table together. And we’ve got Ciara and Shannon, too, and they’ve been together for five years.
“It was such a lovely evening to do with the team — and it was just so nice to be able to see them again, they’re nearly like old friends.
“They’re happy, they found love and they put themselves out there and it worked.”
As for what else viewers can look forward to during the rest of the season, Alice told how Carla’s mum will be dining in the First Dates restaurant after seeing how well it worked out for her daughter — and there’s a couple other stand-out moments.
She said, “There’s a couple, Clodagh and Adam, who’ve matched a few times on Tinder but they’ve never actually been on a date — but they got matched together in the First Dates restaurant. When they realise, it’s kind of like, ‘oh, the universe is saying that we have to try a date — we’ve been putting it off but the universe has put us together’.
“And then we’ve got Aoife, this woman from Cork, who is doing a year of saying ‘yes’. I think it’s saying yes to most things.
“She gets set up on a date with this man called Lucas, who has just arrived back from Tomorrowland. He’s lost his voice, and he’s fun, energetic and his mantra’s probably to always say yes to everything.
“It’s a fun date — it’s always great when people bring a lot of energy and personality in themselves.”and
“IT WAS SUCH A LOVELY EVENING WITH THE TEAM.”