Original Summary

"It was very serendipitous" - Mary and Jason on finding love in Ireland Mary Timby was fed up with dating apps when she booked a trip to Ireland on a whim last summer - from the comfort of her Colorado couch. The spur-of-the-moment trip was unlike her: Timby, 39, is a self-described "total planner". But she'd always wanted to visit Ireland, and she found herself exhausted by the local dating scene while navigating a career transition. And then she remembered a few throwaway lines from a comedy series about a matchmaking festival in Ireland. So she looked it up - and not only was the Lisdoonvarna Matchmaking Festival real, it was also taking place during the entire month of September, when she was scheduled to visit. Now, a little more than a year later, Timby is reaping the benefits of that uncharacteristic last-minute decision: She's become a viral star. She's found love with an Irishman she met at a pub called The Matchmaker. And she's even started a new business venture - bringing others to Lisdoonvarna who hope to follow in her footsteps. Mary Timby / Timby and Jason Mangan, 38, from County Clare, Ireland, are pursuing a transatlantic romance "It's really about enjoying County Clare, enjoying the festival, and, if you meet someone, you do - and that's what happened with us," says Timby, smiling at her partner, Jason Mangan, sitting beside her. They're speaking from the windswept coastal cottage they rented together for the summer in his native County Clare - about 20 miles (32 km) southwest of Lisdoonvarna, the site of their first fortuitous meeting. 'Mary, your video is going viral' From the outset, Timby's inaugural Ireland trip seemed to take on a life of its own. She filmed a short video on the plane before her flight took off, telling her approximately 300 TikTok followers that she was heading on an off-the-cuff trip to an Irish matchmaking festival - and didn't "know what's going to happen". Timby then "turned my phone on airplane mode, then spent about eight hours on the flight (and) woke up at Shannon Airport," she says. When she turned on her phone, "it was blowing up". A group of friends had texted her. "They said, 'Mary, your video is going viral,'" she says. "I didn't even have notifications on for social media." She rented a manual transmission car - horrified to find the gear stick on the left side of the driver's seat - and set off through County Clare to her accommodation at an Irish family's home. Then she headed to Lisdoonvarna, where she saw firsthand that the festival is a whole-town, month-long celebration of conversation and dancing, rather than a line of singles waiting to be set up by a sage local matchmaker. Mary Timby / Colorado woman Mary Timby, 39, visited Ireland's Aran Islands with her new beau That's changed since the festival's origins 170 years ago, when bachelor farmers and moneyed visitors would flock to the spa town of Lisdoonvarna to bathe in its mineral-rich waters and socialise. Generations of matchmakers would ply their trade to set up successful marriages, and word spread. Now, while the town's year-round residents number fewer than 1,000, that number swells up to 80,000 each September as revellers descend upon Lisdoonvarna from around the world. Third-generation matchmaker Willie Daly still holds court at his nearby home and at festival events, and Timby even visited him during her trip - when he put her on the phone to random men whose accents she struggled to understand. But the real magic of contemporary Lisdoonvarna lies in the town's overflowing streets and pubs - as Timby soon found out. Her first night in town was "a little slow," she admits - and Timby was tired and jet-lagged. She retired to her room and spent the next day sightseeing, but the Irish woman running her accommodation convinced her to try Lisdoonvarna again that night. "My AirBnB host said, 'You should go back tonight, because I heard that the younger folks come out at night,'" laughs Timby. So she did - and found herself dancing and drinking pints at The Matchmaker Bar in the centre of town. That's when a "handsome Irishman" approached her. 'Conversation just flowed' "I went over and introduced myself, and... conversation just flowed," says Mangan, 38, from Ennis, County Clare, about 22 miles southeast of Lisdoonvarna. He'd been to the festival before and was well-acquainted with its cultural significance, remembering his grandparents making the journey decades earlier for the dancing. "Unfortunately, I didn't have much time on my hands, because I was turning back to Ennis," says Mangan, designated driver that night for a group of friends. "So I got her name, and I said, 'Oh, sure, I might see you around.' "It was a very short interaction, to be honest with you." Mary Timby / The couple first met at Lisdoonvarna's Matchmaker Bar during the annual festival He didn't leave it at that, though; Mangan found Timby on Instagram and followed up with a message inviting her out. "It was short and sweet, and it was really genuine, too," says Timby - and she took him up on the offer. What followed was a series of whirlwind dates - lunches, dinners, sightseeing and shopping trips. Timby extended her time in Ireland and documented much of it for her newfound following - but she didn't reveal anything about her new beau. They wanted to save the burgeoning romance for themselves. When Timby eventually had to fly home, there were "tears at the airport" - but they decided to keep the relationship going. "It was very tough to say goodbye," Timby says. "It was very tough to start a long-distance relationship, but it ended up being a really good opportunity for us to sort of slow things down a bit." They kept talking daily, Mangan impatiently waiting for Timby to wake up seven hours behind him in Colorado. She flew back to Ireland again, then he made his first trip to America for Thanksgiving 2025. Timby returned to Ireland at Christmas and met his family, and after that, they decided to m

中文概览

中文标题： 我在爱尔兰相亲节找到爱情，希望别人也能如此

美国科罗拉多州女子玛丽·廷比一时兴起参加爱尔兰利斯敦瓦纳相亲节，在酒吧遇到爱尔兰男子杰森·曼根，发展跨国恋情。她成为网络红人，并开始带其他人参加该节。

  • 情报分类：综合情报
  • 分类依据：人物情感与旅行故事，非特定领域，归综合。
  • 信息来源：英语新闻 / BBC News Top Stories
  • 发布时间：2026/9/19 07:18:02