Ireland in Love; New Survey Reveals All

With so much talk about "Credit Crunch" and "Market Meltdown" it's good to know that we still have time for Romance and Relationships. A new poll from Anotherfriend.com, Ireland's No 1 online dating site with almost 250,000 members gives a revealing insight into our attitudes to love, lust and romance in 2008.

The Female Perspective

According to the survey, Irish women find men who are mysterious a big turn on. And if it's top rated George Clooney making them laugh then all the better ( local favourites Brian O'Driscoll and Colin Farrell don't even come close). Metrosexual males will be glad to hear that good personal hygiene is seen as very important – otherwise, the likes of B.O. and poor grooming have the potential to be a big turn off. Irish men were deemed to be the sexiest nationality though it appears that women in this country are also partial to the charms of Italian men.

The Male Perspective

For Irish men, women with a sweet personality are the biggest turn on while the ability to make them laugh out loud is important too. Jennifer Aniston is the ideal celebrity date but our own Sharon Ni Bheolain follows as a close second. Similar to the perspective of Irish women, poor personal hygiene is a turn off for the Irish male but so too is wanting to change him. Meanwhile, Irish women will be glad to hear that they are considered the sexiest nationality though they should perhaps look out for any Polish women on the horizon as they score highly too with the Irish male.

Men & Women

• Interestingly, both men and women agree that eyes and making eye contact are what gets their attention at the first meeting.
• A Romantic dinner for two was voted as the perfect date ( a drink in the pub lagged way behind )
• The majority also agreed that 30 minutes was the time that most people allowed for a potential partner to make a good impression.
• And it appears that we are a nation that likes to take it slowly as respondents felt that it was best to wait until your third date to have your first kiss or perhaps take it further (52% vs. 26.2% for those who replied in favour of waiting until the second date)
• Faithfulness was identified as the most important requirement that you seek in a partner for a serious relationship
• Also, there was an almost even split between the sexes when asked if they could be interested in a man or woman that they were not initially attracted to (53.7% vs 46.3%)

Results Highlights

• "Dinner for Two" is the ideal romantic date scoring almost 63% (surprisingly, a drink in the pub lags way behind as a poor third favourite at just under 15%, just behind a walk in the park at 16%)
• "Make me Laugh"; humour is the commonly agreed most important personality trait when meeting a potential partner for the first time; for women it rated at 77.1% and for men at 42.5%
• "Who's Sexiest?"; Irish men rate Irish women as the sexiest nationality with Italian women a close second (31.5% vs. 19.1%). In turn, Irish women found Irish men as the sexiest nationality - however, Italian men proved to be a very appealing second, choice (41.3% vs 28.1% respectively)
• "Call George"; It won't come as a shock to learn that George Clooney topped the poll at 43% as ideal celebrity male date with Brian O'Driscoll and Colin Farrell trailing behind – 5.3% and 13.5% respectively
• "Friends with Jen"; Irish beauty Sharon Ni Bheolain was the most popular Irish personality after Jennifer Aniston who was identified as the ideal celebrity female date (29.3% vs 19.5%)
• "Catch Their Eye"; Men and women agreed eyes and eye contact were the first thing that grabbed their attention. For men it rates at 50% and 67.8% for women. A good smile and shoulders rated next for women (10.1% and 7.8%) while breasts and hair were important for men (13.7% and 13%)
• "Turn Offs"; For women, it's poor personal hygiene (69%) and not being listened to (10.4%). For men, it's poor personal hygiene (42.6%) followed by women who want to change them (22.7%)
• "Turn Ons"; For women, it's mysterious men (34.4%) with the entrepreneurial man a close second at 29.1%. For men, it's women who are a sweet type (42.6%) followed by the tomboy type (16.2%)
• "Keep The Faith"; Faithfulness at 51.9% is considered the most important requirement sought in a partner for a serious relationship. ( Common Goals at 16.6% is the second rated quality)
• "Time the First Date"; chatting on line, most respondent felt it was better to wait a week before a first date (57.5%) with 34.1% saying a month was appropriate

ENDS

The anotherfriend.com survey was conducted between 15th September 2008 and 09th October 2008 with 1759 people participating in the survey