And here a small selection of press and media coverage, reviews and remarks ...

BBC2 Documentary - Matchmakers (Producer - Maeve O'Cathain)

Willie Daly lives in the beautiful remote town of Ennistymon in the west of Ireland. He is the Republic's leading matchmaker, facilitating romance for those who want to get married. His daughters serve as Daly's apprentices, learning his traditional style while introducing new methods of their own. Hundred's of people have sought the Daly's help in making a good match. They're provided with a meal and music, and although introductions are made, no one is under pressure to fall in love - although many do.

Holidays '98, Independent Supplement (Veronica Blake)

Willie Daly surveys the scene at the Spa Wells, sat in a quiet corner of the Hydro Hotel, looking like an elderly sage with his long silver hair. He told me that the reason he continued the family tradition of matchmaking was his love and concern for the people of rural Ireland.
Willie spends his winter nights going through the sacks of mail he receives from hopefuls from all over the world.  He received an enquiry from a group of women in Latvia, who claimed to be intensively trained in agriculture and seeking romance with Irish men. "We had rakes of fellas interested." Willie witnessed his first match when he was nine. It was called "plucking the gander."

Irish Journalist Pat Howley (TV Comment)

"Can Willie Daly the matchmaker find love for me?" was the intriguing if rhetorical question posed by the man himself in a soft spoken introduction to Matchmakers on BBC2 which went out close to the midnight hour on Thursday last. Complete with the coaxing assertion that there's nothing nicer in life than love and that none need go without it, who could resist such a soft sell and what followed over the next forty minutes was a wonderfully atmospheric documentary on the genial man from North Clare who is reputed to be Ireland's one remaining matchmaker.

From a world where the roving eye is valued and encouraged, the programme offered an enticing insight into the restrained and subtly persuasive techniques involved in the fine art of adjusting Cupid's aim and there was also an idyllic taste of the good life as it is lived around Ennistymon and Lahinch and Liscannor and beyond to the Cliffs of Moher and the strikingly beautiful foothills of the Burren.

Willie's father and grandfather before him were matchmakers and when as a young man, he became aware that many family names were dying out in the locality, he decided to step in and lend a hand. Now the father of seven grown up children, his services are sought from far and wide and he is currently dealing with anything up to 700 people. From as far away as the United States he gets requests for help for the lovelorn and he spoke of women who had been married three or four times and were in comfortable financial circumstances but had never derived any great satisfaction from their previous relationships. The were now turning to Ireland in search of what Willie described as men who could sing a bit, dance a bit, fight a little and drink a lot and hopefully Willie Daly can find such men for them.

Nowadays Willie can supply another string to Cupid's bow as his daughter Marie takes a special interest in the family's long established pony trekking business and runs boy meets girl weekends where the ponies are only part of a package which includes long treks through magnificently scenic surroundings and nights of eating, drinking and set dancing - with plentiful opportunities for exceedingly convivial conversation.

"In affairs of the heart there can be no guarantees but after four or five days," says Willie, "you'd become aware of little things. A fellow might begin to wait for one of the girls over a difficult patch of ground, or there might be lingering looks and you'd notice them noticing each other." "Or, if the horses would allow it, a couple might move a little closer, but that doesn't happen all the time, as horses can be very good judges of this kind of thing too."

The programme followed a group of hopefuls over six days of trekking and six nights of socialising, and while amongst the 10 or 12 couples involved there seemed to be but one or two lightning strikes, all were satisfied customers and were determined to come back again for another go at finding Mr. or Miss Right. All had fallen in love with the Burren and the women had fallen in love with their horses, so it seems only a matter of time and possibly a slightly different mix of participants before the magic happens and they fall in love with each other and be happy for ever and ever. As one young woman with a young man by her side put it, "The most natural thing in the world is to love somebody, and if one is loved back, there is no greater feeling." I couldn't have put it better myself.

... and here a true story:

A man called Paddy John Joe asked me to find him a wife and wanted to discuss the possibilities with me. Each place I suggested to meet him he said "No, no, someone will see you with me and know you are helping me find a wife!"  Eventually, he suggested meeting me at an unused graveyard: Paddy John Joe, his dog 'Spot' and me.

As we were discussing his chances of finding true love, two car loads of Americans pulled up at the graveyard searching for their ancestors called 'Murphy'. Paddy John Joe shouted to me "Get down, get down or they will see us."  The Americans saw us and came towards us and we felt like two eejits lying on the ground. I pretended to be looking for my keys and on getting up one of the Americans recognised me as the Matchmaker.

I introduced Paddy John Joe as an eligible bachelor with a small farm overlooking the sea.
An American girl, about fortyish was bending down rubbing, patting and talking to 'Spot' the dog when he jumped up and bit her nose.  Paddy ran over to comfort the girl and, jokingly, I said "You will have to marry her now!" Every one laughed, but her Aunt, to my surprise, assisted me in encouraging them.  The got married one year later, now have two children, a nice lifestyle and are living 'Happily ever after' ...

For a booking or more information contact us by telephone, fax, letter or e-mail.
 

telephone: +353 87 6712155 (Mobile); fax: +353 65 7071717; email: willie.h.daly@gmail.com

Last modified: 12-Jan-2010