This article is from page 7 of the 2012-01-03 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 7 JPG
LISDOONVARNA matchmaker Willie Daly is to re-double his efforts to find a suitable husband for the newly-separated Irish singersongwriter Sinead O’Connor.
Last September, O’Connor engaged the services of Daly and his daughter Claire during a much publicised visit to Lisdoonvarna, but last week announced that she and her husband of just 16 days had separated.
According to Daly, O’Connor’s marriage to drugs counsellor Barry Herridge happened too quickly and, because of that, was destined to fail.
“I think she was in too much of a rush. Sinead’s a wonderful, free spirit and I noticed that about her when she came to Lisdoonvarna earlier in the year,” he said.
“She got a lot of attention and was in huge demand from many of the eligible fellas when she was here, but I think the enthusiasm of one or two of them scared her off. She was maybe more picky than I expected her to be, but I’m still certain that I could find the right man for her.
“My technique is tried and tested and it works. Sinead has a wonderful heart and I’ve no doubt she will soon find the happiness she deserves and a lasting romance,” added Daly.
O’Connor made quite the stir when she arrived at this year’s Matchmaking Festival in Lisdoonvarna. She cut her planned three-day visit to the festival short and later admitted that the experience had been too much for her.
Describing the scene that greeted her at Lisdoonvarna, Sinead said that the gathered men were “winking and grinning at each other and hitching up their trousers as if to say: we’re in here, lads”.
Just two months after her visit to Lisdoonvarna, O’Connor tied the knot with Mr Herridge at the famous White Wedding Chapel in Las Vegas. The marriage lasted just 16 days, with O’Connor admitting that the pair lived together for just seven days.
“From the moment myself and my husband got together not long ago, there was intense pressure placed upon him by certain people in his life, not to be involved with me,” she said. “The marriage was 16 days. We lived together for seven days only. Within three hours of the ceremony being over, the marriage was kiboshed by the behaviour of certain people in my husband’s life.”
Daly is the third generation in his family to take up matchmaking. He claims that his matches yield around 200 weddings each year.