The Wild Geese Plays Celtic Cupid for St. Valentine's Day

NEW YORK - Feb. 7, 2014 - PRLog -- A month before Irish eyes are smiling for St. Patrick's Day, Irish hearts are beating for Valentine's Day, so the Irish online community TheWildGeese.com is celebrating the sentimental day in a uniquely Irish way. Combining an Irish language word for love with the universal shorthand for "hugs & kisses," The Wild Geese launched Grá XOXO, a festive new feature that adds a lilting Irish accent to the February 14th holiday.

"With a great deal of grá, we’ll be exploring Valentine’s Day from an Irish perspective with compelling content – some light-hearted, and some quite serious," Wild Geese executive producer Gerry Regan said. "Some may not see the Irish as a passionate people, but everyday at The Wild Geese we are uncovering the deep passions of the Irish worldwide."

Grá XOXO includes the "Great Irish Romances Series," exploring the lives, times and romances of legends from Irish culture and history, such as poet William Butler Yeats and his objet d’amor, Maud Gonne; IRA soldier Sean Treacy, gunned down on his way to his fiance, May Quigley; revolutionary Robert Emmet and Sarah Curran; Charles Stewart Parnell and Kitty O’Shea; James Joyce and Nora Barnacle; revolutionary leader Michael Collins and his fiance, Kitty Kiernan; and pairings drawn from Irish mythology -- Oisín and Niamh, along with Diarmuid and Gráinne.

The special page includes a look at great Irish love affairs in film, St. Valentine's traditions in Ireland, a look at how the Claddagh ring became the Irish symbol for love, a special Grá XOXO crossword puzzle, and evenThe Wild Geese Valentine Name Generator--a chance to discover your "Braveheart McArdent" or "Honey McVelvet" alter ego.

The Wild Geese and its nearly 1,700 members will keep adding features to Grá XOXO, such the planned “Virtual Síbín," an update on the informal (and illegal) pubs of rural Ireland as an online gathering on Google Hangouts, with guest Annette Counihan of Cupid's Crusade, a travel company which combines tourism with matchmaking.

Grá XOXO also highlights some of the dozens of outstanding marketers who comprise The Wild Geese Irish Heritage Partnership. These valued partners share and support The Wild Geese’s mission of exploring and celebrating the epic heritage of the Irish … worldwide. New to the ranks with this initiative are TheIrishStore.com, Wild West Irish Tours, Cupid’s Crusade, and Castle Brands’ IrishToTheCore.

"Grá XOXO is an entertaining excursion into this special holiday among the Irish worldwide," said Dublin-born Belinda Evangelista, part of the site's nine-member team. "And it's a valued guide for our members and the more than 15,000 unique monthly visitors who find their way to our pages. Many will be seeking uniquely Irish gifts for the special people in our lives, and Grá XOXO will facilitate online purchases and increase brand awareness for our marketing partners."

The Wild Geese, for 16 years a leading source of information about Irish history, relaunched in March 2013 as the only social network focused on exploring Irish history and heritage ‘wherever green is worn.’ Membership, nearing 1,700 worldwide, is open to all. To learn more about The Wild Geese Irish Heritage Partnership, visit http://thenewwildgeese.com/page/sponsorship or contact Gerry Regan, at partnerships@TheWildGeese.com.