My new idea will change dating landscape forever

Valentine's Day falls on Tuesday next and Tuesday is not a romantic day. No one sends flowers on a Tuesday. No one makes love on a Tuesday. So today, being a Saturday, is really Valentine's Day.

God be with the days when the postman used to bring my cards in the wheely bin to save his back. Nowadays I'm mentoring and consulting.

So it could be you do not have a date on Valentine's Day or Valentine's weekend. But not to worry. I have a plan. It's called "will you shift my friend?"

We have too many single men and women looking for love who are doing without. I really feel for our single friends, especially the women who find it really hard to ask a man out on a date for fear of being considered a stalker. I have written about this before. Twice in fact. It didn't do much good. I'm sure, though, "will you shift my friend?" will change the dating landscape forever.

The dating sites are a massive help but the best way of finding love is to meet the chosen one in a social setting, such as in the gym or in pubs, which are about to be closed down shortly by Shane Ross, so get moving.

A matchmaker put me through college. His name was Dicky Mick Dicky O'Connor. Dicky Mick Dicky was a character in my Dad's book and stage show 'Letters of a Matchmaker'.

Dicky was forever trying to fix up lonely men and women. It was usually the men who were the loneliest, as most of the women had headed off for England, America and the cities.

There were stories of hill farmers sending off for rubber women (blow-up dolls). The men brought the inflatables to Mass, all dressed up in tweed skirts, shiny ear rings and smelling of 4711, which wasn't a type of fertiliser or a plane, but a particularly pungent eau de cologne.

Although, come to think of it I'd say the oul' fellas got the ear rings bit all wrong. How could you put ear rings on a blow-up doll without catastrophic consequences?

But behind Dad's madcap humour there was a terrible sadness and loneliness. Dad took the plight of the lonely bachelors very much to heart. There are still lonely men who call to our pub in search of women but the dating landscape has changed significantly. Now it's the men who are in short supply.

Women are waiting longer to get married. It seems desperately unfair in a way. So many women who worked so hard to get to the top are penalised because they are women.

A man's biological clock runs and runs. Mick Jagger (right) will be fathering children into his 90s.

Women have to overcome glass ceilings and biological ceilings. A woman has to work twice as hard to reach the top in her chosen field and Ireland hasn't changed as much as we would like to think. The equality laws are there all right but the de facto situation circumvents fairness.

The job givers may not say as much but quite a few discriminate against women who are thinking of having babies on the grounds that the mothers will be out on maternity leave for a year or longer. This blinkered view fails to take account of the fact that the women come back to work stronger and more fulfilled.

If the job givers say as much, then they can be sued but that's the thing, isn't it? How can you sue a private thought? The scandal which keeps many women from settling down earlier in life seems nearly impossible to prove.

There was a time when married women had to quit their jobs in the banks or the civil service. At least the men back then were honest about their discrimination. This is why women who are smarter and tougher than their male counterparts are often kept in the second tier of management.

I know there are other reasons why people are marrying later on in life, such as financial pressures or the desire to travel. But this is a column, not a thesis.

Then there's the fact that women and men have a better chance of finding someone when they are younger. It's a bit like that DIY ad: "when they're gone, they're gone." Most of the good ones get snapped up early on.

I know many of you are perfectly happy to remain single. Good luck to you. I know of many more who hate being described as some sort of "poor oul craturs" in a desperate state for a partner. But such is the human condition. Most of us need to love someone and we need to be loved.

I would urge those of you who are without a partner and are dying for a little baby of your own to take the plane to Denmark. I have two women friends who are a loving couple and one of the girls went to Denmark, where she conceived two beautiful kids from the stored sperm of verified donors. There are medical and psychological tests carried out on the donors who are all voluntary participants in a project to bring new life and great joy into the world. I have never been in a happier home.

Go for it girls. The names of the mother and the baby are kept from the donor. At the end of what will surely be a hugely emotional experience you will have your very own baby.

But we have to try out "will you shift my friend?"

My friend Damien O'Mahony was telling a few of us about the way it was when he was in Irish College. The boys and girls were just starting out at that first kiss stage. The girl's pal would approach a boy and ask "will you shift my friend?"

So we came up with the big plan. Those of you who are already fixed up will wear a "will you shift my friend?" badge. The badges will be sold for charity. The friend to be shifted will come along just for laughs and to help the good cause. Women who have someone, and men too, must matchmake for their friends. We in "will you shift my friend?" are looking for the right charity. Get in touch. Make a pitch. In the meantime you can make up your own "will you shift my friend?" badges, free of charge, with our full permission.