The biggest turn off for Irish women looking for love will surprise you
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Loading... - Simon Sterling
- 27 May 2022
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Ah, dating. It can seem like the wild west out there with many people just not knowing where to start.
It also turns out that we might not be helping ourselves. Dating expert Feargal Harrington of Intro Matchmaking has spilled the dating beans with us and shared a surprising hurdle to finding love.
Speaking exclusively to EVOKE, he also explained that his company is as busy as ever after the pandemic with members all over the country longing to meet their soul mate but just not really knowing where to start.
'We have members aged 25-93. 20-25 percent are Dublin based the rest are scattered all around the country,' he explained. 'But you need to be coming to us looking for the best possible match not just the most convenient.'
Feargal started the matchmaking agency with his wife Rena more than a decade ago, and since then their experience has taught them much about the way Irish people like to develop relationships- something that they are keen to pass on to their members.
To be fair, along with their team of matchmakers, Feargal and Rena have a pretty good success rate. They don't rely on algorithms that other dating apps seem to favour, they use good old fashioned gut intuition.
'One in four end in marriage or long term relationships and a third of our business is word of mouth,' Feargal said. 'You can't beat human intuition. It's also the filtration system that we have going on the fact that we behave like the guards or the gate keepers at the entrance.'
Given their experience, Feargal spoke to EVOKE about the biggest issues that prevent Irish people from meeting their ideal match and shared a few handy tips to help singletons find love…
Travel
We're a tiny island. Lots of other nations might think we have everything on our doorstep as we are only mere hours away from pretty much anywhere, but yet we just don't like to get up off the couch and travel.
Feargal reckons this is the number one obstacle for budding romances.
'The biggest issue for Irish people is the unwillingness to travel,' he said. 'There are twice as many women in urban areas as men. All the times when women say to us where are all the men, they're the ones on Tinder or Bumble with a 15 kilometre radius.'
Anyone signing up to Intro has to sign up to an agreement that they are willing to travel up to 90 minutes to meet a date. 'Everyone must be willing to travel a reasonable distance,' he said.
Education
Feargal and the Intro team did a lot of research on this. According to the data he has reviewed, women spend longer than men in third level education here- at a ratio of 1 to 0.6.
'Education is a huge thing, it's one of the biggest issues for Irish women.' he explains. 'We get an awful lot of women that we have to turn away who say I've got a PHD from Trinity so I'm not going to go near him because he's "only a builder".
Feargal is quick to point out that this is by no means an indicator of compatibility. 'Because he doesn't sound elite enough, and because he doesn't have 25 letters after his name she feels from an academic point of view he's not at the races for her.
'She'd almost go out with a surgeon she never sees rather than a builder who has time for her.' Read More…
