Knock on heaven’s door — finding a partner made easy

EIGHT matches made in heaven — well, with a little help from a Catholic dating agency, at least — ended in marriage last year.

So said the Knock Marriage Introductions Bureau in its recently released annual report.

The group, set up under the patronage of Our Lady of Knock in 1968 aims to help Catholics meet suitable prospective marriage partners.

Since its origin, the bureau has arranged the introduction of more than 16,000 couples, leading to 846 marriages so far.

Of these, eight couples who met through the service tied the knot last year.

Most of the 244 applicants to their service in 2006 — an almost equal mix of men and women — were aged between 30 and 45.

But while one-in-three of the 123 men who applied for membership to the service were farmers, just over half the female applicants described themselves as professionals. The women applying to the bureau for potential introductions were also more likely to have a third-level qualification than their male counterparts.

Despite a growth in matchmaking services available through the internet and in newspapers and magazines, the Knock Marriage Introductions Bureau has had more than 7,000 enquiries from potential members in the last three years, although the numbers actually applying last year fell to 244 from almost 300 in 2003.

For an annual membership fee of €150, the bureau promises to do its utmost to help applicants find a life partner.

The procedure involves returning two questionnaires on the applicant’s personal details, and a full-length photograph.

The bureau then selects a woman they consider suitable for a male applicant, taking general background, education and interests into account and sends her picture and one of her completed questionnaires to the man.

If he would like to meet the woman, his photograph and questionnaire are sent to her and correspondence between them is then begun with a view to possible introduction.

According to bureau director Canon Joseph Cooney, there are almost 200 couples at the introduction stage at the moment.

More than 16,000 — or at least one-third — of the 47,980 introductions suggested by the service have ended in the couples actually meeting, and more than one-in-20 of these have led to marriage.

While most of the service’s members are between 30 and 45 years old, a number of older people continue to seek life partners through the bureau. Of last year’s applicants, 16 men and 12 women were at least 55 years old, including six whose spouses had died.

The largest group of men to have been matched with a wife was farmers, accounting for 273 of the 846 grooms. The other most common occupations among men successfully paired were technicians, tradesmen and businessmen.

One-in-five women who were married to somebody they met through the bureau were nurses, 155 worked as clerks, 125 as teachers and 100 were secretaries.