First Dates recap: Banter, shots and heartbreaking back stories in stellar first episode back
First Dates Ireland returned for its eighth season tonight
First Dates Ireland returned tonight, complete with bubbly best friends, the lad who can’t believe his luck when he finds his “dream girl” and a sweet older couple determined to find love again.
We had shots, we had banter and we had heartbreaking back stories – here's a quick recap if you missed it.
Kicking off season eight is car-mad Colm from Dublin, who arrives looking for a woman who won’t mind crashing into a wall on the track.
“Are you on the market for long,” Mateo asks. “Most of my life to be fair,” the 28-year-old quips.
His date is 25-year-old Sorcha from Donegal who says her mam has described her exes as “lapdogs”.
“That’s why I am looking for someone with a bit of cheek.”
Within moments of exchanging pleasantries, professional auto detailer Colm has managed to hint at his love of cars – thankfully, there are no red flags here for Sorcha whose eyes widen.
“A Toyota head? Class!” Colm can’t seem to believe his luck, making a call in the bathroom to tell someone he’d met “the dream girl”.
“She’s stunning, she’s unreal” he says, “she’s mad into cars.”
We’re unsurprised that it’s a green light for both when they’re asked whether they’d like to see each other romantically again.
Next through the Gibson’s doors is Dublin girlos Aisling and Naomi. Aisling, 25, wants to meet someone who’s quick, chatty and “likes to have a few drinks” while Naomi, 26, is looking for someone “a bit wild but sensible.” Aisling is paired up with insurance underwriter Ross, 30, who spends the bulk of his free time at Leeds United games.
“I need someone to make me feel like I want to be with them more than going to watch Leeds,” he says.
Ross has barely picked his date up at the bar when best-friend Naomi is grilling him for details – and the three are doing shots and joking about “threesomes.”
Honestly, we’d have been happy to watch the three of them natter on for the night but alas, Naomi has to go and meet her own date, Brodie, 32, a kiwi who moved to Ireland the day of an All-Ireland final (“it was an introduction..”).
Over at Aisling and Ross’ table, they soon realise they live down the road from each other and Ross knows Aisling’s brother.
“Will I send him a picture of you?,” she giggles. “Gwan.”
It’s lots of laughs and banters from then on out, with Aisling getting a nice few digs in about the age difference.
“I didn’t go to my own debs,” Ross says at one stage.
“You should have brought me, I would have been well on my first period by then,” Aisling hits back.
There’s lots of fun at Naomi and Brodie’s table too, where Naomi gets the bill, and Brodie promises to get the next two rounds of drinks.
But Post-date, after a slew of compliments in both directions, the girls decide they’re “too alike” and have a solid foundation for a friendship instead of a romantic rendezvous.
It’s another story for Aisling and Ross, with Ross right out of the gate with “100%, definitely” when he’s asked whether he’d like to see Aisling romantically again. There’s a big happy head on him when Aisling says yes too. Deliro for them.
Finally tonight we meet old-school romantic and multi-instrumentalist Garry, 73, from Wexford who is paired up with power lady Mary, 71, from Galway.
“Love is a tickling of the heart that you can’t scratch,” Garry remarks, in one of his first quotable moments of the evening.
“I am a total romantic, and I believe in that moment when you meet someone.”
Garry, suited and booted in a blue number that would give Mateo a run for his money, opens up to Mary about how lonely he’s been feeling lately – and shares that he has recently welcomed a Ukrainian family into his home.
“I said sure I have a house here with a front double room and a front single room. So, they moved in. They’re an absolutely beautiful family.”
Mary, for her part, wears her heart on her sleeve in the piece-to-camera footage.
“Is there actually someone out there for me?,” she wonders. “I am always on my own... wouldn’t it be nice to go on holidays with someone?”
Mary says she is looking for someone who “likes to dance” and “respects women". Heartbreakingly, we learn why the latter needed to be said aloud when she opens up about her ex-marriage.
Reflecting on the early days of leaving her ex-husband and raising her two children as a single mother who wasn’t entitled to claim social welfare, she speaks of boiling potatoes in the kettle and not being able to afford Christmas presents for her smallies.
“Saint Vincent de Paul knocked on the door [one] Christmas eve. [They] got us chicken, brought my daughter a Coca Cola radio, my son a Dukes of Hazzard race track.
“It was like winning the lotto.”
All we wanted was for it to work out for Mary, but unfortunately, Garry is right in with the “no” when asked whether he felt there’s a future romance there.
“I just didn’t feel the buzz,” he says, “and Galway to Wexford is a long drive.”
We'd make it for Mary, just saying.
- First Dates Ireland airs Thursdays at 9:30pm on RTÉ 2
