First Dates recap: A confident Corkonian, a DJ, and finding 'a real diamond'
First Dates Ireland Sparks flew between Minnie from Cork and Shane from Dublin during their date at the First Dates restaurant.
The most recent episode of First Dates Ireland saw two couples leave the restaurant together after a successful date.
A total of eight singles entered the restaurant in the hope of finding a match, with two couples securing their second date with their match.
Minnie from Cork hit it off with Chris from Dublin, with the pair bonding over life ambitions and past experiences, while David and Shane, two busy working individuals, quickly found in each other many lifestyle similarities.
Minnie, 30, from Cork, entered the First Dates restaurant knowing exactly what she wanted, hoping for a confident, blonde-haired, blue-eyed boy.
Oozing confidence and dressed to impress, Chris, 32, from Dublin came into the restaurant with the same desire to meet someone confident.
Sitting down for dinner, Minnie opened up about her experience of being in foster care and how she was eventually adopted by an Irish family and has since lived in Cork.
She spoke about how she wants to settle in Ireland but that she would like to experience living abroad first.
Sharing her ambition to live elsewhere, Chris said he would like to live somewhere else for at least six months and âget out of Ireland, get out of the terrible weatherâ.
Chris, who is a full-time fitness coach, spoke about the importance of sports in his life.
He spoke about his diagnosis of cystic fibrosis at just three years of age and that his mother put him into so much sport and exercise to get him fit and healthy.
He said that he is very lucky that his cystic fibrosis âisnât that badâ and said he owes a lot to exercise and thatâs why he loves what he does.
Minnie spoke about making music and how she started to take music seriously in 2018, before her father became sick and was admitted to CUH, prompting her to go into pre-nursing to take care of her dad more.
âLiterally in less than a year, I got a job,â she said, saying she loves nursing but that she also loves music.
They spoke about how they both want kids in the future and Chris said he wants someone to get on with, have fun with, and build a life with.
When asked if theyâd like to see each other again, they both said they would and look forward to seeing where it could go.
Eloise from Dublin, who said she is usually ready to marry someone after a month, entered the restaurant hoping to meet someone kind.
Grace from Louth arrived at the restaurant with a rose in hand for her date, saying she felt good but nervous and excited ahead of her date.
Spoke about how she was such a girly girl growing up, refusing to wear trousers, cried when her parents brought her to the local GAA club and ran away from a tennis camp, while Grace said they would wear Juicy Couture tracksuits.
Grace from Louth, who works in a creche and also DJs, said she feels as though sheâs in a quarter life crisis and would like to do something else.
Eloise opened up about how drinking started to make her feel anxious and she realised that she didnât have to drink and said she now knows her body and what itâs trying to tell her.
They spoke about their past experiences with dating and relationships and how they envisioned their lives and how different their ices have turned out.
While they both enjoyed their date, Eloise said she didnât feel a romantic spark. Grace said she would have seen Eloise romantically again but said she understood where she was coming from and the pair left the restaurant as friends.
David, who described himself as a chaotic person who travels quite a lot, said he would love to meet someone who understands his lifestyle and has their own thing going on.
âIt would be nice to be able to do all the traveling around and then have someone that is home, like, come back to that person, because I think home is people.âÂ
Enter Shane from Dublin who said that he wants to be in a relationship where he and his partner would both be their own individuals and have their own thing going on.
He said he wasnât looking for perfection, but for someone who could be his âMr perfectâ.
Both non-drinkers, they ordered a ânojitoâ from barman Neil who was reluctant to accept the name for âan overpriced juiceâ, before they sat down for dinner.
During their date, they spoke about their working lives and their health, with David opening up about his testicular cancer diagnosis in 2020.
The pair said they would like to go on a second date, with Shane describing David as âa real diamondâ.
Mark from Dublin entered the restaurant hoping to make a genuine connection with someone, saying that connecting with someone through text isnât how he sees himself getting to know someone.
Jill from Mayo, originally from the Philippines, spoke about her job assisting surgeons in the operating room, saying how seeing the human body in its most vulnerable state is âinterestingâ.
Mark spoke about his travels to Turkey for a hair transplant as his thinning hair was affecting his confidence.
They spoke about their dating experiences, their personalities and how they show up in a relationship, and their home lives.
After a slightly awkward exchange over splitting the bill, the pair said they would not see each other again romantically.
