We catchup with Eddie Mc Guinness AKA The Queen of Matchmaking
Ireland has a long tradition of matchmaking... Helping people in rural Ireland find love and a life partner. A Matchmaker is a person responsible for bringing people together. Traditionally one would approach a matchmaker looking for love and the matchmaker would use their connections to identity a perfect match. Kind of like the dating agencies of the Pre=internet era.
Lisdoonvarna has been home to the last matchmaker of Ireland and the tradition continues to this day. However, in 2002 Eddie Mc Guinness decided to bring the tradition to the LGBTQ community with a modern twist. The first Outing Festival took place in 2013 in the home of matchmaking, Lisdoonvarna and since then Eddie has become the first and only Gay (LGBT+) matchmaker in Ireland crowned the Queen of Matchmaking.
Back in 2019, I caught up with Eddie while documenting for GCN and The Outing Festival, I produced this little treasure for The Outing Festivals Archives.