This past Thursday night, 24 bars across Dublin city hosted hour-long blind dates as part of the Trinity Cupids event. Trinity Cupids is a matchmaking event organised by the Saint Vincent de Paul’s Society, French Society, Entrepreneurial Society, and the Engineering Society. This year, the event was a massive success, as the applications quickly reached total capacity and organisers were able to set up a total of 128 dates for various Trinity students.
A number of bars and pubs such as Fade street’s Bar With No Name hosted the Trinity Cupids event, where a handful of nervous Trinity students trickled into various rooms to meet their blind dates. Afterwards, whether the dates were successful or not, participants met up for an after-party at Bewley’s to celebrate the success of the event with more drinks.
According to a coordinator for the French Society who worked on the Trinity Cupids event, Lucille Touzot, the matching of dates presented some unique challenges. When purchasing tickets to the event, which were priced at €15, participants were asked to fill out a small questionnaire, answering queries about their red flags, ideal partner, favorite musical artist, and more. Organisers then used these slices of information to accurately match up the various participants. According to Touzot, “It was pretty complicated to get everyone with good matches, but we definitely tried our best,”
The main objective of the event was to raise money for the Women’s Aid Charity. All ticket proceeds were donated to the Too Into You campaign, which aims to bring awareness to abuse and unhealthy relationships, specifically for a younger audience. Their website provides clear-cut information on how to detect an unhealthy relationship, along with a 24-hour help hotline. Trinity Cupids is a small part of a bigger movement to educate university students on important issues outside of the classroom.
The event was hugely successful with a total of 128 dates, though the outcomes of the night varied drastically among participants. Those who did peel away from their date described the night as fun and something they would participate in again.
Ultimately, 3140 euros were raised for the Women’s Aid charity, marking the night successful regardless of the diverging personal outcomes.
