Miriam OÕCallaghan lookalike seeks humorous hunchback for lasting fun

Date Published: {J}

Apparently one in five Irish women thinks they’re Miriam O’Callaghan; there’s certainly none of them living on our road. Even more bizarrely one in ten thinks they’ve very like President McAleese, around the same number that think they’re either Brian O’Driscoll’s girlfriend or Lorraine Keane.

So 19 per cent of the female population feel similar to a mother of eight who presents Primetime, and twelve per cent think they’re a dead ringer for the President. Can one country have so many deluded people at the same time?

We haven’t seen the like of it since Vera Duckworth believed she was a cousin of the Queen’s on Coronation Street.

And just what would make a woman think she’s very like Lorraine Keane; a former television presenter who was never seen twice in the same outfit and who has the added advantage of being able to call on her old talents for finding the best way through traffic at rush hour.

What might explain the results of the ‘survey’ published last week is that it was carried out on behalf of a wine company; presumably the respondents were quaffing several classes of the plonk as they dreamed of life in Aras an Uachtarain.

Strangely no one saw themselves as Susan Boyle – because I’ve seen a number of SuBo lookalikes out in public.

But at least while women saw themselves as bearing similarity to these fashion icons, they weren’t so shallow when it came to choosing the perfect man.

When asked what characteristics they most admired in a partner, 60 per cent chose 'honour', while 'sense of humour' came in second with 46 per cent and 'reliability' came in third place with 40 per cent.

All of which is good news for decent hunchbacks with a self-deprecating sense of fun – because nothing as simplistic as good looks came through on the wish list at all.

Other high scoring attributes were kindness, being down to earth, confident, unpretentious and ambitious – so nothing much out of the ordinary there then.

If sense of humour is the key to attraction, why doesn’t Bobo the Clown have more female admirers than George Clooney? And if reliability is a clincher, wouldn’t they be better off with a good car than a dull man?

Yyou can’t help but wonder if they asked Miriam O’Callaghan or Mary McAleese who would they think they most looked like....would they think they looked just like us?

For more, read this week's Connacht Tribune.