![\"Mary](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/0024f3b0-614.jpg\"\/)
\nMary Timby said she was immediately drawn to Jay Mangan (Pic: Eamon Ward)<\/p>\n
An American woman who travelled from Colorado to the Lisdoonvarna Matchmaking Festival on a whim has returned to Co Clare after finding love at the famous event.<\/p>\n
Mary Timby first heard about the festival on an episode of the Canadian television series Schitt’s Creek.<\/p>\n
Intrigued by the idea of a real-life matchmaking festival, and disillusioned with dating apps, she decided to make the trip to Ireland.<\/p>\n
What started as a holiday adventure ended with Ms Timby meeting her partner, Clare man Jay Mangan.<\/p>\n
“I came to the matchmaking festival from America on a total whim and actually met someone, so it worked,” she said.<\/p>\n
\nMary Timby said she was immediately drawn to Jay Mangan (Pic: Eamon Ward)<\/p>\n
Ms Timby said: “I first heard about the festival on an episode of Schitt’s Creek and thought wouldn’t that be fun.<\/p>\n
“I discovered that it was a real festival and from there just came and had the craic and met my partner.”<\/p>\n
Ms Timby said she was immediately drawn to Mr Mangan, who is from Ennis.<\/p>\n
“Jay made me laugh right away and I was just really drawn to that Irish accent,” she said.<\/p>\n
Her experience at the festival was documented on social media, with her posts attracting more than two million views and bringing international attention to the annual event.<\/p>\n
She said part of the appeal was the opportunity to meet people without the screens and swiping associated with modern dating.<\/p>\n
“I think taking the screens out of dating can be really helpful,” she said.<\/p>\n
“The serendipity of actually meeting a person and not knowing everything about them, that mystery and just meeting people in real life is what Lisdoonvarna is all about,” she added.<\/p>\n
The relationship has continued since Ms Timby’s return to the US, with the couple maintaining a long-distance relationship before she came back to Co Clare this summer.<\/p>\n
“The romance is going so great,” she said.<\/p>\n
She added: “We’ve had the opportunity to connect long distance, which gave us space to get to know each other in a grounded and authentic way.<\/p>\n
“He continues to make me laugh so we’ll see where it all goes, but it’s going well.”<\/p>\n
![\"Cecilly](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/0024f3b1-614.jpg\"\/)
\nAlbert and Cecilly Lawlor met at the festival 59 years ago<\/p>\n
The festival’s matchmaking tradition spans generations and has stood the test of time.<\/p>\n
Albert and Cecilly Lawlor, from Co Limerick, met there 59 years ago.<\/p>\n
Mr Lawlor said he knew almost immediately that there was something special between them.<\/p>\n
“The very minute I danced with her, I knew there was something there and I just felt that she is the right girl for me,” he said.<\/p>\n
They married 12 months later and almost six decades on, the couple continue to return to the festival to celebrate their anniversary where their love story began.<\/p>\n
“We celebrate our anniversary every year here. We haven’t missed a year and it’s fantastic, really fantastic,” Mr Lawlor said.<\/p>\n
![\"Willie](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/0024f3b2-614.jpg\"\/)
\nWillie Daly (R) said ‘Lisdoonvarna has that lovely magic’<\/p>\n
The man behind the oldest singles event in the world is Willie Daly, who has been matchmaking for 60 years.<\/p>\n
“Lisdoonvarna can be summed up in one word,” he said, “and that’s ‘magic'”.<\/p>\n
“It has the beautiful opportunity of finding love, finding happiness,” he said.<\/p>\n
Mr Daly said dating apps are “probably good” but “you’d hear that they have too much of a choice, making wonderful connections and then stopping a bit quick”.<\/p>\n
“That’s a little regrettable,” he said.<\/p>\n
He added: “Lisdoonvarna has that lovely magic, that if you see someone you like you can ask them to dance.<\/p>\n
“When you can look into their eyes and have them in your arms, it’s a good start.”<\/p>\n
The festival will welcome visitors from Ireland and abroad throughout the month of September, with the historic Hydro Hotel also set to play a renewed role.<\/p>\n
The landmark hotel was purchased earlier this year by the Fiddle + Bow Collection, which is bringing it back into the festival programme with live music, dancing and speed dating events planned.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An American woman who travelled from Colorado to the Lisdoonvarna Matchmaking Festival on a whim has returned to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":614043,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[93,61,60],"class_list":["post-614042","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/614042","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=614042"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/614042\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/614043"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=614042"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=614042"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=614042"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}