Colorado woman finds love at Irish matchmaking festival, launches tour business

In a world grown weary of algorithmic courtship, an American woman's impulsive detour to a 170-year-old Irish festival became something older and rarer than a match — it became a reminder that human connection still flourishes in the unrepeatable texture of place, music, and chance. Mary Timby traveled from Colorado to the village of Lisdoonvarna, County Clare, last September, and found not only a partner in Jason Mangan but an unexpected vocation: guiding others toward the same leap of faith. What began as a joke overheard in a comedy series has quietly grown into a small movement, proof that