ANDREW LIMBONG, HOST:
Fifteen years ago, reporter Rebecca Rosman was traveling with her family along Ireland's West Coast when she spotted a curious sign. It was for a matchmaking festival, the largest in Europe, in a nearby town. A lot's changed about dating in 15 years, so we sent her back to see what hasn't.
REBECCA ROSMAN, BYLINE: Lisdoonvarna has one main street, a few pubs and not much else. But every September, it undergoes a transformation.
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ROSMAN: For a month, this sleepy village becomes Europe's last big matchmaking festival. The tradition goes back more than 150 years, when farmers came here after harvest to find wives. Today, thousands descend, hoping that love or at least a good dance might be waiting inside a crowded pub.
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ROSMAN: That's where I meet three friends - Marie Walsh, Geraldine Beirne and Nora O'Sullivan. They're in their late 60s now, but they say they've been coming here since they were in their 20s. Here's Walsh.
MARIE WALSH: My sister met her husband here. My best friend met her husband here. I did meet somebody that was in my life for a while here.
ROSMAN: Back then, even busloads of Americans came every year. But those days are gone, they say. Here's Geraldine Beirne.
GERALDINE BEIRNE: Since COVID, I must say, Lisdoonvarna's had a big drop. But the atmosphere, the whole scene changed. It has got quieter.
ROSMAN: They sound wistful. But just across town, a younger crowd sees things differently. That's where I meet Fergal O'Sullivan, 30, standing with two friends. I ask what he's looking for. He looks me straight in the eye.
FERGAL O'SULLIVAN: Looking to find true love.
ROSMAN: He means it. So does his friend, Liam Shivers.
LIAM SHIVERS: You have no real connection with Tinder, you know? I want to find - I want to look at woman in her eyes when I first meet her, you know? I believe in woman - I believe in love at first sight, you know?
ROSMAN: You do?
SHIVERS: Yeah.
ROSMAN: Have you had it?
SHIVERS: No. I thought I did, but she said no. She said, stop looking at me, so...
ROSMAN: Later that evening, the three say more friends will be joining them for Lisdoonvarna's big Saturday night. By 7 o'clock, the Matchmaker Bar is buzzing.
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UNIDENTIFIED MUSICAL ARTIST: (Vocalizing).
ROSMAN: Crowds pack in for music, dancing and for the festival's star attraction...
WILLIE DALY: Five euros for a husband.
ROSMAN: ...Willie Daly, the third-generation matchmaker. He runs the show here. He's in his 80s now, meaning he's reached an almost mythical status.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: He has a very high success rate.
ROSMAN: This is how it works. People line up. Daly spreads out his questionnaires, ready for hopeful romantics. And then he takes out his most prized possession...
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: See that book there?
ROSMAN: ...A worn, 100-year-old matchmaking ledger passed down through generations. Over the years, Daly says he's matched over 3,000 couples. People sit down next to Daly, telling him who they are and what they want.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Career orientated, family orientated, tall - not a lot of tall people anymore.
ROSMAN: He listens closely, jots down a word or two about each single - gorgeous, intelligent, sometimes even...
DALY: Like Pamela Anderson.
ROSMAN: It's part matchmaking, part performance, but for many, just telling Daly their hopes is half the magic.
LAURA RYAN: I really only want to build a blessing. I have a partner.
DALY: Yeah.
RYAN: And I've been with him for nearly 15 years, but we are not engaged.
ROSMAN: His advice...
DALY: Tell him you've got a lot of offers.
ROSMAN: Willie isn't the only Daly carrying on the tradition. His granddaughter, Oonagh Tighe, is 25.
OONAGH TIGHE: First thing you say - are you single? Would you like a woman? Would you like a man?
ROSMAN: She's already made matches herself, including a couple she introduced here two years ago.
PATRICK MEAD: Willie Daly's granddaughter - she wanted to know when - what was my star sign and what was Angela's star sign. And she looked them up, and she said you're compatible. You're a match.
ROSMAN: That couple, Patrick and Angela, are still together. Some visitors have come from much further away.
DENISE ALMAS: I saw it on the internet one time about three years ago, and I'm like, that looks good. That looks like a place where maybe I can meet someone.
ROSMAN: That's Denise Almas who flew in from Washington State.
ALMAS: I got off dating apps three years ago. This is a much more normal way to meet somebody, even if I'm coming from the United States, because you're live and in person. We need more of this. We need more community in the U.S.
ROSMAN: Community is exactly the point, says Melissa Condon, a farmer from Tipperary.
MELISSA CONDON: It's our culture. It's our culture, yeah.
ROSMAN: Still, with Daly in his 80s, some wonder how much longer this festival can last. Others say Lisdoonvarna is bigger than any one man, that its future lies in keeping not just love, but the community alive.
By midnight, things have moved to another spot, the Ritz Hotel. Two dance floors are packed, a DJ on one side, traditional Irish music on the other - young and old swirling together. Not everyone - not even most - have found love, but they are having fun. There's a rare earnestness to it all.
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ROSMAN: Just before the music stops and the lights go up, I get a tap on the shoulder. It's Geraldine Beirne, one of the three ladies I met earlier in the day, who had said the festival's heyday was gone. She's beaming. Seventeen years a widow, she tells me she just met a man, a gentleman, she says, with amazing blue eyes. Maybe it's just the beginning. Rebecca Rosman, NPR News, Lisdoonvarna, Ireland.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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