Fellow bridge players and friends,
you are all very welcome here today to the presentation of prizes.
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| Carmel Murphy- Bridge Tutor with President Mary Howley |
This is the 2nd anniversary of the
Galway Education Centre Bridge club. The club was founded in Sept 2011 and 12
months later we had our 1st AGM where a committee was elected. We have come a
long way since then?
Every Thursday we play 12 to 15
games. 6/7/8 tables are the norm. We
are now fairly competent at filling in the score sheets and Carmel Murphy works
out the winners. The prizes are small but it is great to win. We play the
Chicago movement on
the last Thursday of every month
and this allows for discussion of the hands played.
Membership of the Bridge Club has
increased to 41 in 2 years-This is a great achievement.
Our social side is thriving Mark
Twain said: "Twenty years from now you will
be more disappointed by the things
that you didn't do than by the ones you did. So explore, dream, discover.” And
this is what we have been doing.
In October we conquered Connemara,
over-nighting in Renvyle House Hotel.
Our Christmas party was in the
Centre and we were entertained by the RTA Choir group who lifted all our
spirits and touched our hearts .On Dec 13th, we glammed up for our Christmas
dinner at the G, which was subsidized by the RTA and the Bridge
Club. A Christmas gift of € 180 was given to the Education Centre. At
the end of Jan. we took off to Westport Hotel for Beginners Bridge Week. We
went to the Eye Cinema early in the New Year to The Quartet, and in April we
were bussed to Kerry.
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| Galway Bridge Club members |
In Sneem, Kathleen led us in a
rendition of "The Stone outside Dan Murphy's Door," and Nancy
connected up with her roots beside the statue of the great Crusher Casey. We
stayed 3 nights in Parknasilla Hotel. A warm feeling comes over me when I think
of us relaxing in the hot tub as the sun rose over the Kerry mountains, music,
song and poetry at night and we still had time for some bridge.
On 1 July a small group of 12, will
head for Dublin to visit Áras an Uachtaráin and attend a garden party there on
2 July. In Dublin, we will experience art, culture, heritage and drama; Henrik
Ibsen’s An Enemy of the People at the Gate Theatre.
I would like to thank sincerely the
committee for all their support and hard work during the year. They worked
hard, meetings every month to organise and help develop the club, being caring,
generous and supportive. They came in early to set up
things and made sure all was in
readiness. Sincere thanks are due to Mary Comer who formulated and photocopied
a draft constitution for the club. Copies will be given to the members for
their perusal prior to the AGM which will be held on Thursday 26 September. We are very grateful to the subs during
The Presidents Prize Competition. We
thank Teresa Togher, Rita Tierney, Mary Gannon and Bernadette O Grady. We
needed 3 more players to make up the 28 – the number necessary for the
individual
movement and we are very grateful
to our visitors who came in from Kinvara. Thanks also to Gay Keavney for his
expertise and his undoubted talents in helping us with the competition. It ran
very smoothly especially as most of us had never played and had never even heard of an individual
movement.
Our thanks must be extended to-Bernard
Kirk, director of the Education Centre, to
Pat, the caretaker, to Maura, Dolores
and Orla the secretaries, for the accommodation, and for the
hospitality; teas, coffee, fresh biscuits, photocopying facilities, 2 rooms set
up for us and best of all, a friendly welcoming ambiance. We are very fortunate
indeed.
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| Kathleen Campbell - Treasurer |
A word of thanks to our Bridge
teacher Carmel Murphy- the best bridge teacher in the world. Carmel is always
there advising, cajoling, helping, and inspiring us and Carmel is very proud of
us.We are very grateful to Mary Kyne- Secretary of the Galway Branch of The
Retired Teachers Ass. for all her advice and support. We are indebted to Mary
for her generosity, her positive approach and bigheartedness to the club. Mary
is also very proud of us.
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| Mary & incoming President Phil Moran |
A special thanks to you, our great members who made this year so
memorable. Our Bridge enthusiasts
travel from Carraroe, Tuam, Ballinasloe, Killimor, Loughrea, Nth. Clare, South
Galway, Oughterard, Galway City and suburbs and without that commitment, the club would not have
flourished as it has. There is an admirable spirit in the club where everyone
is included and valued. Long may that continue. However we can’t rest on our
laurels. Christopher Columbus said "You can never cross the ocean until
you have the courage to lose sight of the shore.” We’ll have courage and our
target for Sept. is to play 18 boards and we hope to start at 10.00am. We hope
that we progress to a more professional status without losing the fun element.
We must take time to remember 2 of
our good friends who have departed from us and from this life- Nollaig Osborne
and Daithi O Broin. We greatly miss their smiles, their stories and
friendship. Ar dheis De go raibh a
n-anamacha dilis.
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| Sisters Julie & Josephine with Mary |
Our club is founded on bonds of
friendship and it is wonderful to have such a great group to enjoy fun,
inclusiveness, laughter, togetherness and bridge.
When we come to die I doubt if
we’ll regret not having spent more time working. But maybe we’ll regret not
having played more bridge with our friends!
Mary Howley June 2013
