Love in the air as bachelors touch down after Philippines trip

A GROUP of Irish bachelors who went to the Philippines in search of wives returned home yesterday with the mission partly accomplished.

Seven of the 12 men met prospective partners and are planning to keep in contact to see if their mutual interest survives the months and miles until they next meet. “I’m over the moon,” said group leader, Co Clare farmer Chris Sexton. “Love is in the air.”

Chris, 64, set up the East-West Matchmaking Agency to help unattached older men like himself find partners and 11 signed up for the inaugural two-week trip to the Philippine city of Butuan.

Chris had already laid the groundwork there on two earlier trips and through advertising and word of mouth, more than 100 women turned up to see what all the fuss was about.

“We were mobbed,” said Eugene Reilly, 55, from Ballyjamesduff, Co Cavan. “Everywhere we went, everyone would just down tools and talk to us.” For Eugene, who is divorced and lived in the US for years, the attention was a welcome surprise. As a non-drinker he finds the social scene in Ireland is not conducive to meeting women.

“It’s a completely different society in the Philippines. There’s very little drinking and no girls drink. The people are so friendly and open and very gentle and generous even though they’ve nothing.”

Another member of the group, Eamonn Murphy, 56, was also bowled over by the friendliness and, despite spending the last 28 years honouring his title of Clare Bachelor of the Year 1976, met two women he is keen to stay in contact with.

“We didn’t go out with the intention of getting wives there and then. There is no possible way you could make a decision like that in a ten-day holiday,” he said.

He admitted to feeling guilty when approached by some of the youngest women, imagining the reaction if he landed back in Ireland with a 21-year-old. But while the two girls he will keep up contact with are not much older, aged 25 and 28, he found the age gap was more chronological than actual.

“You can’t compare them with western girls. They are about eight or nine years ahead in their outlook and maturity. It comes from having to survive in very tough circumstances. And over there a 56-year-old man looks 76. He’s old and worn out from a hard life. So they look at us and think of us as younger than we are.”

Being treated as celebrities didn’t blind the group to the harsh realities of life in the region. Many of the women lived in ramshackle wooden houses without electricity or running water and crammed with extended family, and were lucky to earn e1.50 a day.

Neither did it blinker them to the risk of falling for a girl who is more in love with the idea of getting out of the Philippines than she is with her Irish beau.

“You ask what they want in life and they say the simple things. A man who would care for us,” said Eugene, who also met a girl he hopes to develop a relationship with.

“I know they want a better life and if that’s all they want, then you’d have to ask yourself would she be happy and would you be happy. But that’s not something you could tell without making one or two more trips.”

Ironically, the trip matchmaker ran into problems with his own match. Chris married a young Filipino woman earlier this year but immigration troubles meant she couldn’t travel to Ireland and when he returned with the visa problems ironed out, he found the relationship hadn’t survived his absence.

It hasn’t soured him against the idea, however. “I wondered should I tell these men what’s happened or will I just fabricate a story but I decided I better be straight up. I needn’t have worried because it certainly didn’t stop them.”

Chris is planning another trip for newcomers and returning travellers early next year. Anyone who is interested can contact him by writing to him at: Chris Sexton, East-West Matchmaking Agency, Miltown Malbay, Co Clare.