Woman Goes on Spontaneous Date in Ireland, but Things Take Unexpected Turn After She Kisses His ‘More Attractive’ Friend 

When Leigh Ann Healey visited Ireland in August 2022, she decided to add a little adventure to her trip. Newly single and curious about meeting someone abroad, the California native opened Hinge to see what might happen.

“I thought it would be fun to meet some cute boys with even cuter accents,” she says.

After matching with a man in Dublin, Healey agreed to meet him at a bar and brought her friends along to keep the night light and low-pressure. But when her date arrived, he wasn’t alone. He introduced his friend Darragh — joking that Darragh was the “much more attractive” one.

The comment was meant as a laugh, but for Healey, it landed like a plot twist.

“[Darragh] very much indeed lived up to his introduction,” the 29-year-old admits. “He had this thick neck, stocky rugby-player build… and the kind of smile that makes you forget your own name for a second.”

Almost immediately, she felt more drawn to Darragh (who asked that his last name be left out) than to the person she’d matched with. Still, she tried to play it cool and stay polite.

“We had this magnetic pull toward each other,” Healey recalls. “Totally led by attraction at that point, but our silly banter made it clear we wanted to keep talking, too.”

Later that night, the group moved from a touristy bar to a local club. When “Super Freaky Girl” by Nicki Minaj came on, the energy shifted.

“We slowly inched closer and closer together, and suddenly, we were kissing,” she says. “So cliché, but my heart was absolutely soaring.”

Healey assumed that was the end of the story — a fun vacation moment she’d remember but never revisit. Then Darragh surprised her again. The next morning, he offered to pick her and her friend up and drive them to the airport.

“He carried my luggage to security while holding my hand,” she says. “On the way, he told me he wanted to see me again. I was so perplexed.”

The idea of him visiting her in America sounded dreamy, but she didn’t expect it to really happen. Yet two months later — after less than 48 hours together in person — Darragh boarded a plane to Los Angeles for his first trip outside Europe.

“He stayed for two weeks, and I took time off work so we could really experience everything,” Healey explains. “We celebrated Halloween together — we went as Pooh and his ‘Honey,’ even though we weren’t even officially dating yet!”

During the visit, she introduced him to her world: his first American football game, long hikes, workouts, Disneyland, and classic L.A. date nights. They also did something even better than sightseeing.

“We spent plenty of time just being lazy in the apartment,” she says, “completely jet-lagged and delusionally happy.”

By the end of the trip, they made things official — even sharing a YouTube vlog about their time together. When Darragh returned to Ireland, Healey laid out simple rules for long-distance life: daily calls, visits every couple of months, and a plan to live in the same city within a year.

“Having an end date made it actually doable,” she says. “And our time zones shockingly worked in our favor. He was a bartender, so when he got off at 2 a.m. in Ireland, it was 6 p.m. in L.A. when I’d get off work. It fit perfectly.”

Less than a year after they met, Darragh moved to Los Angeles. The two have lived together since July 2023.

“We honestly have just been head over heels for each other since day one,” Healey says, adding that her original date handled the surprise romance with total grace.

“He was thrilled,” she laughs. “He literally took credit for playing matchmaker — and still brags about being the reason we’re together.”

Healey may have traveled across the ocean to find her person, but she wouldn’t change a thing.

“Darragh is the best souvenir ever,” she says.