![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/0_Episode-6-Harry-and-Michelle.jpg\")
<\/p>\nWhat a way to meet the family<\/p>\n
Cork woman Michelle might have gotten more than she signed up for as the latest diner to head to the First Dates<\/a> restaurant. Siblings Harry and Ava from Waterford<\/a> swap the rough-and-tumble of family life for a double date with Michelle and another participant from Meath.<\/p>\n Michelle hits it off with Harry as she discovers his own brand of \u2018dad dancing,’ but trouble brews as the pair take opposing sides in the controversial Lyons v Barry\u2019s debate.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Trinity student John from Meath is utterly smitten with Ava, despite her describing him as a bit of a \u2018yup bro.\u2019 Also on tonight’s episode, singer, actress and former X-Factor contestant Mary Byrne is hoping to win Gerry over despite her fame – she is in luck, as Gerry has no idea who she is.<\/p>\n Joseph from Dublin arrives armed with his own acronym – SPARK, which is to say he\u2019s looking for someone Smart, Positive, Aligned, Reliable and Kind. Failing that, he admits that he\u2019ll settle for someone \u2018hot\u2019.<\/p>\n Joseph meets returning dater James from Roscommon, who didn\u2019t feel the \u201cspark\u201d last time round, and reports that, since then, he\u2019s been on \u201cmore first dates than Mateo.\u201d<\/p>\n This follows another Cork appearance on the show as single dad Gearoid <\/a>was looking for someone he could have the craic with. After an 8-year marriage and an amicable split, he wanted someone to cuddle on a Saturday night.<\/p>\n You can watch First Dates Ireland tonight, Thursday, March 5 at 9:30 pm on RT\u00c9 2 or catch up on The RT\u00c9 Player.<\/p>\n Want to see more of the biggest and breaking stories from Cork Beo? Making us your preferred source on Google<\/a> means you\u2019ll get more of our exclusives, top stories and must-read content straight away. To add Cork Beo as a preferred source, simply click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"What a way to meet the family Cork woman Michelle might have gotten more than she signed up…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":333397,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[93,61,60,6085],"class_list":["post-333396","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-rte"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333396","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=333396"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333396\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/333397"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=333396"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=333396"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=333396"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}