MATCH MADE IN Ireland

An American writer crosses the ocean to look for love in the Irish countryside

- Andrea Bussell

It was late in the summer of 2021, and Willie Daly, Ireland's last traditional matchmaker, was hovering in the doorway of a small cottage on a sprawling donkey farm. "You look like a film star," he called out, pronouncing "film" like "filum", and inviting me in for tea. He wore mud-spattered trousers tucked into wellies and a stained blue fleece.

Artefacts from 50 successful years of uniting over 3,000 happy couples around the world-Daly's claim-covered every surface: photos, newspaper articles, wedding invitations, letters of intent from young and old.

Daly handed me a pen and a sheet of paper. Sidelining amusement, I listed my "preferences for a partner": Honest, kind, prefers talking to texting, loves nature and reading, has exceptional taste in music... He tucked it into a bulging ledger made of disintegrating leather, held together with a strap of elastic and bits of string. Paper fluttered from the edges. "Now close your eyes and keep both hands on it for seven seconds," he said, passing the book to me in a ritual so many came to him to perform. "Picture being in love."

For 10 months, I'd been living alone in tiny quarters on a mountain in the middle of a 600-acre forest. Even the postman avoided the narrow lane that went there. At the nearest village, sheep outnumbered people. The rugged wilds of County Kerry.