{"id":259890,"date":"2026-01-23T14:21:18","date_gmt":"2026-01-23T14:21:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/259890\/"},"modified":"2026-01-23T14:21:18","modified_gmt":"2026-01-23T14:21:18","slug":"former-x-factor-contestant-to-appear-as-first-dates-ireland-returns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/259890\/","title":{"rendered":"Former X Factor contestant to appear as First Dates Ireland returns"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>First Dates Ireland will return to television screens across the country on Thursday, January 29th, and a former X Factor contestant will be joining the newest batch of singletons.<\/p>\n<p>The 11th season of the well-known dating show will introduce a new batch of singles on the hunt for their special someone.<\/p>\n<p>The new season will feature former The X Factor finalist Mary Byrne, who will arrive hoping to go unrecognised.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" height=\"636\" width=\"953\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/former-x-factor-contestant-to-appear-as-first-dates-ireland-returns.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1856530 size-full aligncenter fixed-width-container\"\/><\/p>\n<p> Former X Factor finalist Mary Byrne. Photo: PA<\/p>\n<p>In episode one, viewers will see Shannon from Limerick, and fellow \u2018culchie\u2019 Diarmuid from Cork. First Dates familiar face Boo and tattoo artist Lisa.<\/p>\n<p>Marine biologist \u00c1ine will go on a date with junior doctor Keith while events organiser and disco dancing divorcee Margaret will meet semi-retired primary school teacher and filmmaker Robin from Melbourne.<\/p>\n<p>On hand to support people through their dates will be Maitre D\u2019 Mateo, servers Alice and Pete, and Neil behind the bar.<\/p>\n<p>First Dates Ireland will air on Thursday, January 29th, at 9:35pm on RT\u00c92 and RT\u00c9 Player.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"First Dates Ireland will return to television screens across the country on Thursday, January 29th, and a former&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":259891,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[93,61,60,282],"class_list":["post-259890","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259890","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=259890"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259890\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/259891"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=259890"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=259890"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=259890"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}