From meeting your boyfriend in the local SuperValu to meeting strangers on Hinge, is dating easier in the countryside or the city?
Journalist Édaein O'Connell recently described her dating misadventures in both rural and urban Ireland, finding key differences and similarities.
“When I was living at home before I moved up, I was actually in a relationship and it was with someone that I knew that I had met in SuperValu,” she told Moncrieff.
“Very much shop local, date local.”
She also noted there’s little chance for novelty when you’re on the rural dating scene long enough.
“If you go on the apps, chances are you've either shifted them, you may have gone out with them at some point before or you know their brother, their sister, their cousin,” she said.
Ms O’Connell actually found this proximity somewhat comforting: “At least in rural Ireland, someone knows somebody you can get the backstory.”
Dating in the city
Moving to Dublin, however, as a single person is akin to “being a kid in a toyshop”, according to the Irish journalist.
“Although a toyshop might be enjoyable,” she said.
“If you could blend what's good about [the city and the countryside], we'd all be married off.
“I do actually think people do tend to get together with other people through more organic connections in rural Ireland.
“Whereas in Dublin I think just the dependency on the [dating] apps is quite scary.”
The trouble with dating apps
While it can be irritating to see all the same people on dating apps in rural Ireland, Ms O’Connell said it can be equally irritating flitting through stranger after stranger in the city.
“I think we’ve forgotten these apps can help spark a connection, but that's not actually the connection,” she said.
“Sometimes you’ll go on these apps, and [people] match with you, but nothing will come of it, so they're obviously just doing it for a confidence boost.”
She also noted men on dating apps all seem to have the same idea of what a good date is.
“Every time you go on Hinge, they’ll ask, ‘What’s your idea of a perfect weekend?’ and all they will say is coffee and a hike,” she said.
Ms O’Connell suggested it could be smart to return to the days of blind dates and trusting your friends to find the one.
Listen back here:
