Those looking for romance get digout from a matchmaker

Plenty were at the Ploughing Championships yesterday to look for something other than tractors, according to professional matchmaker Mairead Loughman.

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Ireland's Cupid said she has successfully matched 10,000 people over the last nine years and even met two separate couples who now have babies that she paired at the Ploughing in 2023 on Tuesday.

When asked if people were genuinely looking for love while attending the three-day festival, Mairead said: "For some people, this is the highlight of their love calendar.

"I suppose for a lot of people who live in rural Ireland, they don't have many opportunities to find love when they're at home. They might not have a house within a kilo-metre of them.

"If you think of the schools they went to in primary school, they might have had only five or six people in their class.