When it comes to coming out to your family, it can be nerve-wracking deciding the best way to do it. For Abby, 19, from Dublin, however, she decided to turn what can be a stressful event into a celebration.
Abby was one of the hopeful guests in the First Dates restaurant, looking for love and connection. Telling producers that she's been single "forever", Abby said she had only come out during Covid, making this one of the few times she had gotten to date.
The confined restrictions of lockdown only makes the idea of her coming out all the more impressive.
"I got a cake", she said, of her coming out story. "We were never really the type for sit-down, serious conversations, so I said, let's get a cake and do it. We went in with the cake, mam and dad are sitting down, 'here you go', they're just like, 'oh, I knew it!'"
For Maeve, 19, from Kildare, it was immediately obvious that she was the kind to jump into things with both feet – which is what landed her in a cast for her date.
"It was actually because I was dancing in my kitchen, listening to One Direction", she told maitre'd Matteo. She didn't let it hold her back on the date, quickly discovering that both she and Abby study English.
Speaking about what she was looking for, Maeve said she was looking for "a warm hug and sunshine" kind of person, and despite being open to romance, still felt "nervous of rejection".
"I'd be nervous that maybe they wouldn't like me. You have to be cool, if you want to admit that you listen to One Direction and that's why you dislocated your knee, it's like, is that going to completely scare them off?"
When the time came to tell her date how her injury happened, however, Abby was quick to see the funny side.
The couple soon got to discussing parents, with Maeve revealing that her dad died from cancer when she was just nine.
"His death definitely had shockwaves, I think, throughout my life. It sounds kind of obvious but sometimes you underestimate it. This is probably the first year when I can see, kind of, a light at the end of it where my life is not defined by that one moment when he passed away. I definitely have just been a bit more adventurous, because it sounds cliche but life is really too short."
For Abby, living in the moment and taking things as they come is a big focus for her. "I don't want to regret it, this opportunity might not come again, so let's do it!"
Despite bonding over coming out around the same age and being "newbies" to dating, it wasn't a match for Abby and Maeve. "I had a great date, had a great time, can't fault it, but I'd say romantically no", Abby said. "I think we get on great [as] friends ... but there just wasn't that spark there."
Maeve was preparing to say yes, she said, but added that she understood Abby. "I'm disappointed but it's fine", she later told producers. "It was still a great experience, it was still great to go on a date. Rejection's a part of life."
Watch First Dates Ireland on Thursday at 9:30pm on RTÉ2.
