South African hopes to find love in Lisdoonvarna

Irish men are queueing up to meet South African singleton Marleze Kruger, who has sold all her businesses and properties in her home country and travelled 13,000km to the Lisdoonvarna Matchmaking Festival in search of an Irish husband.

Ms Kruger arrived in Clare with her adult son last Saturday and has already had a number of meetings with single Irish men.

Indeed, the widow has a busy month ahead of her and has already been contacted by more than 20 suitors seeking a face to face meeting.

The businesswoman is due to meet with local matchmaker Willie Daly later this week. He is understood to have a number of handpicked men lined up to court her.

Ms Kruger said she has already had a number of “interesting” meetings with Irish men, but will leave much of the romance until after her son returns to South Africa later this week.

“It has struck us that the people [in Lisdoonvarna] are so happy. They love the music, everyone is having fun, it is an amazing, amazing spirit in one little town,” she said. “My son is flying back on Thursday. He came with me to the concert [Nathan Carter and Mike Denver] and has really enjoyed himself. On the day my son is going back to South Africa, my parents are coming for two weeks to see me. I’m sure it will be an experience for them as well.

“I’ve met some of the people who I’ve been talking to [online] for a couple of months — they are really, really good people. It has been interesting, they all have a really solid core.”

Ms Kruger said she is not sure how things will develop.

“I haven’t seen Willie Daly yet, but hopefully I will see him in the next couple of days. He has invited us to meet his family and everyone on his farm so I am looking forward to that.”

Ms Kruger has already more than 20 Irish men clamouring to meet her and she hopes to choose one to settle down with in Ireland before the end of the month.

“I have been contacted by a lot of new people through Facebook who have been to Lisdoonvarna but I haven’t met them because they didn’t attend the concerts. A lot of them have been asking to meet up for a coffee or a drink. That is cool, but I want to spend these last three days with my son before I get into that too much,” she said.

“I’ve been contacted by about 15 or 16 people [on Facebook] so it is quite a story. That’s on top of the people I was speaking with from South Africa. It is going to be intense, I have even seen anything like speed dating before so this is going to be quite an experience.”