Lisdoonvarna: Lourdes of Love

It isn’t easy to find a woman in County Clare, on the sparsely populated West Coast of Ireland. That’s why the Lisdoonvarna matchmaking festival is organized every year, a tradition 200 years old. Pub owner, horse-trader, and matchmaker Willy Daly enjoys helping bachelors find a suitable partner.

Quarryman Mihal Nagle lives alone with two dogs and two donkeys. He has a drinking problem and likes to gamble. He is convinced a woman can change his life.

Farmer Paddy Coughlan is an introvert and religious man who has been taking care of his parents for a long time. At the age of 67 he is so used to the solitary life that the idea of having a wife has almost become a fantasy. A long time veteran of the Lisdoonvarna Festival, he has left alone each time.

Handyman Jamesie Keeting has been dominated by his mother for ages and hopes to meet the love of his life one-day. In the pubs of Ennistymon he drinks and sings of his loneliness.

All three men are determined to meet the perfect woman at the Festival, and LISDOONVARNA – LOURDES OF LOVE, a beautiful, touching film, follows them before, during and after the event.

75 minutes / color / 1999
Sale/video: $298
Rental/video: $100

Subject areas: Ireland, Men’s Studies, Sociology, Western Europe

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Last updated 09/01/2006