Hit and miss with blind date matches

Blind dates arranged by agencies are popular with people who are too busy to socialise, but what’s a match in a computer database may not be in real life, says Roisin Burke.

BLIND Dates are popular with people too busy to sort out their love lives. Intro is a Dublin dating agency. It is run by the engaged couple, Rena Maycock and Feargal Harrington, who met through Feargal’s brother, Owen.

Owen and Rena have been friends since childhood, and Rena had met Feargal once, but it was only as adults that sparks began to fly. “The first time I met Feargal was at birthday party, when I was 15, and he was Owen’s snotty little brother,” Rena said. “When I met him years later, it was a nice surprise that we hit it off.”

Last year, the couple got engaged in their favourite restaurant. “We were going out for Feargal’s birthday. He got down on one knee and proposed. Then, Tom, our waiter, popped out of the shadows with champagne.”

Inspired by Rena and Feargal’s romance, Rachel, a bubbly career woman in her 30s, and myself, a struggling adult in my 20s, decided to try matchmaking. Rena and Feargal meet everyone who joins the agency and a personal profile is created of likes and dislikes.

Personal details are also verified, such as height and age, which gives their agency an authentication that online dating does not have.

I met Rena in Dublin, although the service travels around the country. Rena spends 30 minutes grilling me on my lifestyle and, together, we craft the perfect man to be found in her database.

Intro make a restaurant booking on your behalf and text a reminder message to your phone an hour before the date.

Friday evening I am stripping off in a mobile trailer in the depths of Cork country for a camogie match when my phone jangles with a peppy message wishing me the best of luck on my date in an hour.

I had forgotten and have to reschedule for the following weekend.

Next Saturday, I was in the gym, sweating out Friday night’s bout of alcohol, when I get a text wishing me luck on my date. I can’t believe I have forgotten again! I dash home in a panic only to discover my date is on wash day and clean clothes are scarce. I find a pair of skinny jeans and a white T-shirt that says ‘One night in Bangkok’. The only other option is a black T-shirt that says ‘Nerdasaurus’ and has a picture of a dinosaur using a computer.

I arrive on time; clean and presentable.

I am shown to a nice window table and a stunning waiter catches my eye. He gets water for me; he shows me to the bathroom; he reads the menu to me.

We are getting on great, until my date arrives and ruins everything. The evening is not notable. There is no attraction or chemistry and the whole thing is bland. That said, the conversation flows easily and we spend three hours swapping stories, but when we leave the half-empty restaurant, I am happy to call it a day. We both pay for our own meals.

We exit together and chat amicably, until we are going separate ways. I go for a handshake, he goes for a kiss. I die a little inside.

Rachel also had an embarrassing evening on her blind date.

“I was very excited when Fergal rang me with a date. I had a wedding coming up, so I had a few new things already bought. I wore a three-colour dress with red shoes.

“When I got to the bar it was quiet, which was disappointing. I was nervous, too, because I knew someone working in there. Thankfully, they weren’t on.

“I was shown to a nice window table. There was a couple to my right and a man sitting alone at the table in front of me, and I couldn’t help thinking the man looked a bit old.

“After a minute or two, the hostess came down and announced that the old guy and I should be sitting together. She was so loud that everyone heard and I was mortified. Then, there was confusion about which table to sit at.

“Oh, it was terrible. I laughed it off, but it was so embarrassing,” Rachel says.

“Straight away, I was disappointed with my date. There was no attraction at all. I didn’t mean to judge, but I suppose I did.

“He was a nice man, we had an interesting conversation and we had a lot in common. On paper, I can understand why we were put together, but, at the end of the day, you have to have an attraction.

“We met at half-five and we went for a drink downstairs, after the meal. I got the feeling he was interested, so I made my excuses to leave.

“He insisted on walking me to my car, and when he lunged in for a kiss I opened the car door and nearly kneecapped him! I just panicked.”

“This is my fourth blind date; not with an agency, just friends of friends, and they don’t get any easier.

“Intro recommends you go for dinner, rather than just drinks, and I thought this would be more awkward, but it is actually better. You can talk about the food and it is a bit more relaxed — although my date kept asking if I wanted to try his salad, which I didn’t. He was a lovely fella, kind-hearted, but he talked about his job an awful lot. I couldn’t be listening to that for the rest of my life,” Rachel says.

Strangers matching strangers with other strangers is hit and miss. There is no science to it, but, as Rachel says, “it is nice to get dressed up and meet new people”.

Membership with Intro is €495 and guarantees five dates, with the option to suspend your account for three months if any date leads to many more.

HOW DO THE STARS FIND LOVE?

Supermodel Kate Moss met her rocker husband, Jamie Hince, through Google. Kate said she was looking up men on the internet and was taken by a photo of Jamie. A friend set them up in 2007 and they married in 2011.

Actor Michael Caine (above) began dating his wife of 40 years, Shakira Basch, after he spotted the former fashion model in a Maxwell House coffee advert on TV. She lived a mile away and they had a mutual friend.

Musician Marcus Mumford and actor Carey Mulligan (above) were childhood pen pals, but lost touch over the years. They began dating in 2011, when Carey met Marcus at a Mumford and Sons gig.

Xfactor judge Sharon Ozbourne met hubby Ozzy when she was working in her father’s. Sharon’s dad was the manager of Black Sabbath, the heavy metal band Ozzy was a member of. Sharon was 17 when they met. They have been married for 31 years and have three children together.