Back on the cards: ‘Everything gets discussed from politics to the price of cattle’

It’s just after 8.30pm on an autumn Thursday evening as Paddy Keaney (93) manoeuvres his way into the Mayfly Inn, deftly using one of his two walking sticks to steer his favourite seat into position.

It’s card night in the village of Ballinafad, Co Sligo, and Paddy is soon joined at the pub overlooking Lough Arrow by Pat King (79) who has been playing 25 for seven decades from the time his home in nearby Corrigeenroe was a “rambling house” where neighbours gathered to play cards and exchange news.

Neither worried about contracting Covid when Government restrictions eased and the weekly card game resumed. Pat King had already had the virus. “And I didn’t know I had it,” he said.

Paddy Keaney snorts when asked if he hesitated to come back. “After being in jail for three years?”

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“Don’t say you are back for more money,” a fellow card shark at the Mayfly greets him, but the truth, explains publican Philip Craig, is that “they play for matches” for most of the evening, with each player throwing in a fiver towards the end.

Just as GAA players, Mass attenders and pubgoers found the prolonged disruption of Covid-19 hard to take, card players around the country – many long retired – missed that regular social outing.

Now that the nights are getting longer, games like whist, poker, 25 and bridge are returning to community halls, hotels and pubs in every county but for a variety of reasons, attendances are unlikely to be as high as pre-pandemic.

Dermot O’Brien, Chief Executive of the Contract Bridge Association of Ireland, which had 30,000 members in 550 clubs throughout the country at the start of 2020, says that 25 bridge clubs have already confirmed they won’t be reopening, and he believes that figure will double. Membership had dropped to about 22,500 earlier this year and while more will resume playing, “we are looking at 20 per cent of people not coming back”.

Eileen Shalvey died in January 2021 but her sister Rose, 92, is still playing both in the community centre and with her nieces who never abandoned their Monday night family game.

O’Brien estimates that 15,000 bridge players in the Republic played online during the pandemic, dozens of them people in the 80-plus category who had never been exposed to the internet before but who embraced “virtual bridge” to get their weekly fix. “I know one woman in her 80s whose son bought her a tablet which she uses to play bridge and for nothing else,” he said. “Around half of our playing population played online and some of them played morning, noon and night, more often than they would have if they had to go out.”

A recent survey of association members found that some have no interest in returning to face-to-face bridge.

“Say I am an elderly person who doesn’t want to go out at night any more – I can still have my game of online bridge,” O’Brien said. “Or if I am a busy professional and it is hard for me to get home and have my tea and get back out again by 7.30, it may be more comfortable and more convenient for me to play online.”

He says there has been a shift in perspective since Covid. “I think some people don’t want to go back to live games because they still worry about Covid. There is also an inertia, an attitude that I have played online and it is more convenient for me. I don’t have to get dressed up. I don’t have to rush out,” he said. “And then some people felt: ‘I haven’t been out at night in two years and I would rather not do it any more’.”

There is also an age factor, with the vast majority of players over 55. The clubs that have closed are predominantly rural ones. For these clubs, a 20 per cent drop in membership made a game of bridge untenable, O’Brien said.

None of those in the Mayfly Inn on Thursday evening played 25 online during lockdown. Instead numbers are down due to some regulars dying during the pandemic, said Philip Craig, one of the players.

When Covid-19 put a stop to playing cards at Tullyvin community centre in Co Cavan, 91-year-old Eileen Shalvey had such withdrawal symptoms that her seven daughters got together with her for a weekly family game to get her through lockdown.

Eileen used to joke that it was handy having seven daughters when she founded a camogie club in neighbouring Drumgoon parish, and decades later the seven were again roped in to ensure regular whist games continued.

“Mammy would never miss a whist drive,” said daughter Valerie Brady, who hosted the family lockdown game in her home and who organises a fortnightly whist drive in Tullyvin that resumed in March after Covid-19.

As a safety precaution Valerie dropped the tea and buns that had been part of the night out for the mostly older whist players but she noticed very little fear of Covid among the regulars.

“They were all mad to get back,” she said. “In the beginning we all wore masks but the last night only two did. The older people love it and when they are going out the door, they thank me for running it.”

Eileen Shalvey died in January 2021 but her sister Rose, 92, is still playing both in the community centre and with her nieces who never abandoned their Monday night family game.

Later this month whist will return to Gallonray House, a community centre in Drumgoon, where poker has already resumed. The centre made national headlines in 2020 when 295 of its patrons became the biggest syndicate ever to win a top prize in a National Lottery draw.

Chairman Aidan McCabe suspects some players will be nervous about returning.

“It’s not just nerves about Covid,” he said. “Some people have got out of the habit of socialising. You can easily lose your confidence in going out.”

Roseabby McGorry, chairwoman of the local Community Alert, said the return of whist will be welcome given how vulnerable some are to social isolation. “It was a problem even before Covid. Some people might not see anybody from one week to the next. And people can feel lonely even in a crowd if they have no other outlets and feel they have nothing to talk about. It’s good to have a reason to clean yourself up and have somewhere to go,” she said.

The community activist realised when lockdown lifted that many people felt “socially awkward and were bashful about getting out and about”.

May Moran (77) from Crossna, Co Roscommon hosts a weekly card game in her home during the winter and in March when the Monday night gathering resumed she invested in a hepa filter “and nobody got Covid”.

She doesn’t think anyone in the group, aged from late 50s to 90, was too worried. “I was probably more nervous than anyone that someone would get it here,” said the retired teacher who provides tea and scones for the players.

“We play for 10 cents. For the last two games of the night they raise it to 20 cents. It is for the fun of the game,” she said. “We don’t play during the summer because two of the lads are farmers and people don’t play cards on the long bright evenings. It gets people out of the house and it is something to do on long winter nights.”

Farmer Peter Breheny regrets there are so few young people among the 30 or so who play cards in Drumboylan community centre in Co Roscommon. He organises the weekly game and makes the tea for the players.

“Everything gets discussed from politics to who has sold a farm of land to the price of cattle,” he said. “The pity is that there are very few young people and it could die out, and it is a great pastime.”

Philip Craig doesn’t play himself but looks forward to card night.

“They will blackguard each other and argue about if you are allowed to renege,” he said. “It is comical listening to them. And if any random person is driving by the place it looks busy and then they are more inclined to come in.”