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1984: Looking for Love in LISDOONVARNA | The Mating Season | Classic Documentary | BBC Archive
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37:15Now PlayingCounty Clare in the South-West of Ireland - a rugged community of fishermen and farmers and, it seems, very, very few women. Chicago, Illinois - sophisticated, cosmopolitan and, it seems, short of eligible bachelors...
What could be more natural then, than a pilgrimage from Chicago to the tiny spa village of Lisdoonvarna, where during September the farmers come down from the hills and the fishermen come in from the sea for what the Irish call 'the craic' - a rare blend of dancing and drinking, and perhaps a little romancing. At the centre sits the Matchmaker, with his ledger of secrets, pages of names and hidden yearnings. On one page is the name of Willie Brophy. Willie has come in search of love. He wants a wife, and in five years his annual pilgrimage to Lisdoonvarna has yielded little.
Perhaps on that coachload of Chicagoan ladies there will be that certain someone....
Perhaps an enchanted week in Lisdoonvarna's ballrooms of romance will make all his dreams come true....
Film Cameraman: Alex Hansen
Film Recordist: John Pritchard
Film Editor: Peter Barber
Executive Producer: Roger Mills
Producer: Richard Lightbody
Clip taken from Forty Minutes: The Mating Season, originally broadcast on BBC Two, 9 February, 1984.
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