A First Dates contestant has revealed that she went on the popular show for one reason other than finding love.
Julieanne Moran said she decided to go along with appearing on the show after her friend decided to fill in an application form for her.
The 21-year-old farmer from Westmeath said she agreed to the blind date as she thought it would be a fun experience.
She said: "To be honest, it wasn't me who actually applied. One of the girls that I work with… she applied for me, and I was like, you know what, I might just go along with it for the experience."
Julieanne said she wasn't nervous about being on television and was actually excited to be on the show as she had gone through a self-love journey.
She said: "I'd talk to the wall anyway, so I was grand. I was looking forward to it anyway. It was brilliant. I suppose back then, I was really on the whole self-love journey."
The student said she didn't have any expectations of finding love on the show. Instead, she took it as an opportunity to raise some important issues close to her heart.
She said: "I didn't have any expectation like of meeting somebody off it.
"As I said before, I just really went on it to just talk about I don't know just different things really.
"I'd be really big into mental health and things like that. So I suppose when I knew I was going on it, I thought I might talk a bit about that.
"That was kind of one of the main things I went on it for really."
Although Julieanne is studying agriculture in college, she said her type is entirely the opposite.
She said: "I've never actually been with somebody now who was a farmer himself. Opposite is probably my thing."
Julieanne said her date, 23-year-old Luke from County Down, ticked a lot of her boxes as he is career driven.
She said: "I'd be into someone you know who has a big career path, like not somebody who isn't just wasting their life basically. And Luke definitely ticked that box now for me.
"Somebody who can just talk back to me, that's what really I was interested in going for."
She added: "He's very cheeky and I don't know if they edit that or not. But yeah, he’s very cheeky. He's so kind as well so that was a big thing."
Tune in to First Dates Ireland on RTE Two this Thursday at 9.30pm to find out if Julieanne and Luke hit it off.
