An English rugby player is looking for his long lost Irish love
In 1958, an Englishman called Michael Freer visited Dublin on a rugby tour. After a match at Landsdowne Road, Michael met a pretty Irish woman named Bridie Fortune at a dance.
The pair hit it off and on his return to England, they wrote each other letters. In 1961, they arranged to meet again in London but, unfortunately, their date was cut short as Michael - who was working for Metropolitan Police Force - was called away on an urgent work call. Bridie was left in the lurch holding two theatre tickets.
They lost contact and Freer went on to marry and settled down in Leicestershire with his new family.
After his wife died several years ago, Michael found his thoughts turning to Bridie and what might have been.
Speaking to Newstalk from his home in England, Michael - who is now 78 - explained why he wanted to find Bridie Fortune.
“I have always thought about her, yes. I thought I let her down quite badly,” he said.
"And now that I'm a widow and quite lonely..."
Mr Freer explained that he's placed ads in newspapers and has spoken to three Bridie Fortunes but no luck so far - the problem is Fortune is a very common name. To make matters more difficult, he's not exactly sure where she came from.
"I assume she came from Dublin. She had dark hair and was very attractive... she said she had a brother who was a priest and that's about all to be honest," he said.
Michael said that if he found her, he would like to apologise for letting her down all those years ago.
Wouldn't it be wonderful if he found her? If you know a Bridie Fortune, maybe ask her about a dance in 1958 and a man called Michael who never did take her to the theatre but would now like to take her for tea.
