First Dates Ireland returned to our screens last night, serving up a new batch of romantic hopefuls looking for love.
Maitre'D Mateo, table angels Alice and Pete, and cocktail maestro Neil were back for series eight, as more daters keen to find romance entered the First Dates restaurant.
As always, it was an episode filled with saucy double entendres, sneaky phone call catch ups in the toilets and touching stories.
One memorable story can from a woman who revealed how she overcame a physically abusive marriage after settling down at just 17.
Mary, 71, a line dancer and marathon runner from Galway, was joined by Wexford native and musician Garry, 73, and quickly got to swapping stories about their hobbies and dating histories.
A former long-distance runner with five marathons under her belt, Mary was clearly no stranger to endurance, which made her story about her marriage particularly moving.
Telling Garry she married at just 17, she said, "I thought it was very mature! When I see the kids today, I say, oh my god."
"Seventeen, pregnant, and at that time you'd no choice. If I went into a home, I knew you'd have to give your baby up, and there wasn't a hope in hell of me giving my child up.
"I stuck it out for 15 years", she continued about her marriage. "He was basically an alcoholic, he's dead and gone now."
Mary is an anazingly strong women, what a life story #FirstDatesIRL
— Jeanette Lindfield 🇮🇪🇺🇦🇪🇺 (@JeanetteLindfie) January 5, 2023
She continued to say that in those years her husband became physically abusive: "It got to the stage that I knew he was going to kill me.
Going into the detail of the abuse, Mary explained that her husband knew how to hurt her without leaving marks: "You see, long ago you had to be bruised or battered, show the bruise and go to the police and say, this is what he done. But he was cute, he didn't do that."
Mary's domestic abuse story bravely shows the suffering so many have in silence! Her bravery, courage, resilience and resourcefulness are commendable! She is some woman for one woman #FirstDatesIRL
— Paul Whearty (@pjwhearty) January 5, 2023
Mary said that she left Dublin with her children and moved to Galway "to start all over again". Once she did that, she wasn't able to claim social welfare because her husband was still working. She recalled how she lived on very little money while raising her family.
"I'd buy a four stone bag of potatoes, I'd boil the potatoes in the electric kettle and boil the soup in the electric kettle, and that's what we were living on."
Mary is some woman for one woman. Irish mammies are a different mettle altogether #FirstDatesIRL
— Kerri (@KerriD__) January 5, 2023
In one particularly moving story, she recalled how one Christmas eve St. Vincent de Paul workers knocked on the door and delivered toys and food for the family for Christmas. "It was like winning the Lotto."
Watch First Dates Ireland on Thursday at 9:30pm on RTÉ 2 or catch up on RTÉ Player.
If any of these issues affect you, and you need to talk to someone, you can reach Women's Aid at 1800 341 900 or find their website here.
