A Northern Ireland woman has co-founded a new dating company for local hopefuls looking to find love.
42-year-old Bernie McSorley along with business partner Claire has launched Connexions NI which hosts dating events across the region.
The Armagh woman expressed how their events are not speed dating and how they had seen a gap in the market.
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Bernie herself was in a long term relationship and has been single for over 10 years - but said she found online dating too time-consuming.
She told Be: "Me and Claire got talking about how difficult it is navigating around the online dating world and we came up with the idea of holding events to make it easier for people.
"We did a bit a research and lots of people actually don't like online dating... It's time consuming.
"We get single people all in one room, they can chat and there are icebreaker activities as well to get people engaged.
"We don't think a lot of people go out anymore. This is a good way to get people out and connecting again."
Bernie and Claire are hoping to play cupid and help others find love. Their first event took place at Haymarket on October 28, with the pair receiving a great response.
The Armagh woman said: "We had plenty of people and from the first moment, people were chatting... they were having a great time and there was a great atmosphere in the room too. There were 26 people.
"It's not speed dating as I suppose I tried it myself and I never liked it. I think maybe it's the whole... you have three minutes to speak to somebody and you are doing it 20 times. It's too structured I think, so this is a wee bit different.
"From the success of our last event, a few people have exchanged phone numbers. A first date was arranged on the night.
"We actually have a person returning. He's coming to the next event because he said he had good craic.
"The feedback forms were very positive."
Bernie explained how the atmosphere will be relaxed, with there being 'no pressure and just fun'.
"We give out QR codes. It's called our match form. They put in the name of people they'd like to connect with on the night and if we get two people who like eachother, we will share their contact details."
The next singles event takes place at The Sunflower in Belfast on November 25 for those aged 32 to 55.
For tickets for the event, CLICK HERE.
Events are set to take place for a number of age groups, with one currently being planned for Newry in February.
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