"THE Irish woman is tender, feminine and charming. She respects the traditional values of the family and the importance of a happy home life. She is an individual with her own views and opinions, educated, classy, cultured and never boring. An American gentleman will find peace of mind and contentment with an Irish woman who is totally feminine, loyal and devoted to him."
The author of that description is bringing 20 men from Texas with him to Dublin in mid November on a package tour entitled, strangely enough, the Irish Sweethearts Tour.
The men will pay $2,450 for the 10 day trip, which will include nine nights in Bloom's hotel. Five days have been earmarked for social introductions to Irish women. The other five days are to "allow for the chemistry to happen" according to Raymond Campbell (43), who came up with the idea.
"There will be two types of functions," he says. We will organise meetings with ladies who have responded to ads we have placed in Irish publications. The ladies will be screened according to age and status. Also, some singles organisations have agreed to organise events where the men will meet with a similar amount of women."
The idea for the trip sprang from Campbell's own wanderings around Russia and Poland a few years ago when he met a total of six women in three different countries in a matter of weeks. The women had been listed in a contacts catalogue that Campbell had read. Unfortunately, love did not smite the wandering American: "One lady from Minsk, in Russia, came to Houston, Texas, to visit me afterwards; but it did not work out," he says.
Campbell does not anticipate such a disappointing outcome for his own band of love seekers. Many of the men travelling with him have been married and divorced. His college buddy Rhett, who has been divorced twice already, says; he's just coming to Dublin to meet people and have a nice time.
Back home in Houston, Rhett (42) runs a "business personnel search company". He mostly headhunts oil engineers for Texan oil companies. Campbell's other college pal, David (42), is a certified public accountant. David is also boarding the plane to meet Irish women next month.
Campbell has never married. Neither has he ever been to Ireland and his concept of a modern Irish woman is based on Irish women he has met who have lived in Houston. A browse through Irish newspapers and other publications also helped him to come up with the description he included in the brochure for his Irish Sweethearts Tour, which hits town on November 15th.
In the event of a Texan hearthunter and an Irish woman falling in love, the happy couple will have to agree on which continent they'll live. "It would be between the man and the woman where they want to live. But most of the men would have the traditional view of the family, and the men have careers at home," Campbell says. The woman giving up her career to become a full time homemaker is also a decision for the couple to make, he adds.
People in the 28 to 40 year old bracket seem to have the most chance of being chosen, since age was apparently the deciding factor in the culling of the applicants who answered Mr Campbell's call for women. "There has been no real tight screening of professions; nurses, teachers and business people have answered the ads we placed. Some people have listed no backgrounds.
And what about security for the women on what is really a blind date? "We screen out any unsuitable men that apply. If I am not happy with their application I will reject it. But a woman will proceed as cautiously with a man on the trip as she would anywhere else," Campbell says.
