A match made in Ireland
Rebecca Black finds the Emerald Isle’s romantic side
You’re never too old to find love, Ireland’s last traditional matchmaker assures me with a twinkle in his bright blue eyes. Eighty-year-old Willie Daly receives letters from people all over the world looking for their perfect match.
I’m learning that a strong sense of romance endures across Ireland – from the relics of St Valentine treasured in a church in Dublin, to an etching of doomed lovers Tristan and Isolde at City Hall, a popular annual matchmaking festival, and the most famous piece of jewellery from the island, the hands-clasped heart Claddagh ring. Curious to see the island in a new light, I travel to Co Clare, to find out what Willie’s secret is.
He matched his first couple as a teenager, after a girl had caught a boy’s eye at church, making the introduction by going with the boy to see a pig the girl’s family were selling. He shows me his 150-year-old book of love, a bulging tome full of pieces of paper pertaining to both those seeking a partner, and those Willie has matched. “Touch it with both hands, close your eyes for eight seconds and think of love, and you will be in love and married within six months,” he tells me. I press my hands against the cover, thinking, ‘Well, why not?’
From Willie’s house, it’s a short drive to the world renowned Cliffs of Moher. They jut out dramatically, battered by enormous waves from the Atlantic, sending mists of spray into the air, with the Aran Islands in the distance.
I feel as if I’m walking in the footsteps of literary greats, travelling up the coastline from Co Clare to Co Galway. With the sea on one side and the magnificent Burren on the other, I enjoy the stillness of Flaggy Shore, which understandably inspired Heaney.
As a life-long Yeats fan, a visit to Lady Gregory’s former Coole Park estate is a particularly special moment. It was here that Yeats was moved to write the Wild Swans At Coole, and left his mark, along with other literary greats, on what is known as the autograph tree.
In Galway city, Thomas Dillon Claddagh Gold dates back to 1750 and counts former U.S. president John F Kennedy, Queen Victoria, Princess Grace of Monaco and the current Irish president Michael D Higgins among its clients.
The low doorway on Quay Street opens into a treasure trove of trays of rings and other Claddagh inspired jewellery.
Proprietor Jonathan Margetts tells me the meaning of the ring – the hands for friendship, the heart is for love and the crown for loyalty between two people.
In Dublin, St Patrick’s Cathedral, hosts the relics of St Valentine, brought there in the 1800s as a show of support for the Catholic Church in Ireland during difficult days.
Today they are kept at Whitefriar Street Church in an ornate box behind a window, and roped off with reverence. A statue of the saint stands in an inlet above with the sign St Valentine hear my prayer and flickering candles.
I feel like I can almost hear the echo of years of whispered prayers to the statue of the saint gazing beatifically down at me.