Expressing love through good text

Today, show someone how much you love them by giving them some really good text.

Millions will be doing so. In fact, according to the three main mobile-phone network providers, after Christmas and New Year's Eve, St Valentine's Day is the textiest of the year.

Eircell/Vodaphone expects to carry five million texts today compared with its usual 3.6 million - a text-lurve surge of 30 per cent - while Esat Digifone anticipates some 3.1 million "I LUV U" messages to be sent before midnight tonight.

On an average day the network carries 2.3 million text messages.

Meteor, the year-old entrant to the mobile market, also expects a "huge upsurge" in the number of text messages today.

According to a spokeswoman for Eircell/Vodaphone, the age group most likely to express their innermost feelings of adoration by text today are those in their late teens.

"It's even more popular among this age group, probably because of shyness," she said. "But to put this in context, we launched texting in November 1999. Within six months, we were carrying about 25,000 texts a day. Three years later, it's over three million, so texting has a very broad appeal among all age groups."

Also of broad appeal will be "Titanic Valentine's Night" at Brownes Brasserie in Dublin. At €190 a couple, this is for those with broad wallets - and it is already booked out. The restaurant will be decked out in the regalia which adorned the first-class dining room aboard the ill-fated but nonetheless romantic 1912 ocean liner.

The menu will include dishes served on "that" fateful night, when the evening was interrupted by an unforeseen iceberg.

All the staff will be in their finest seafaring garb.

"At midnight we have arranged for the dining room to be flooded with 5,000 gallons of water," the restaurant's general manager, Mr Justin Green, gushed yesterday. "No, just joking," he added.

Diners no doubt will be hoping that their relationships don't go the same way as the night's namesake, while the men, in particular, will hope that they don't suffer the same treatment that Kate Winslet meted out to Leonardo di Caprio in the movie of the same name. (He froze and drowned to death clinging to the raft she didn't invite him to share).

For some, today will not be a bunch of roses. The Erectile Dysfunction Information Helpline anticipates an increase in calls. "Romantic occasions, such as Valentine's Day, bring added pressure and increased feelings of despair and lack of confidence or self-esteem," says Dr Stephen Murphy, GP and chairman of the Erectile Dysfunction Information Bureau.

More than 1,700 people have contacted the confidential phone line (1850 923 098) since it began operating last year.