Catholic Club was an all-male preserve

By Tom Gillespie

THE once famous all-male Catholic Club in Castlebar was located over the town hall, on Linenhall Street, in an area now occupied by the Linenhall Arts Centre. It consisted of three rooms - two on the first floor and a third on the second.

In the larger room, three full-size snooker/billiards tables held pride of place and regular competitions were staged throughout the year which were always keenly contested and attracted a huge following.

Inside the main door at ground level were the gents toilets. At the top of the narrow stairs on the first floor was a card room, which was the domain of the more senior members. A narrow stairs led to another small room on the second floor and in the 1960s a black-and-white television, supplied by Dermot Fahey of Ellison Street, was installed there.

This was a major attraction to all the young members of the club as very few homes had a TV back then.

I remember, in particular, Sunday night, July 30, 1966, when England won the World Cup, 4-2 after extra-time against West Germany. The game was played at Wembley Stadium.

I was never a soccer fan. But on that night I had been at a film in the County Cinema on Spencer Street, after which I visited the club.

To my surprise, the snooker/billiards room and the cards room were completely empty.

But the TV room was packed to capacity with all eyes on the World Cup.

When I squeezed into the TV room the match had finished at 2-2 after 90 minutes and was about to go into extra-time.

Striker Geoff Hurst scored two goals to complete his hat-trick to give victory to England.

Little did we realise at the time that one of the English defenders in that historic final was to become an honorary Irish man, the legendary, the late, great Jack Charlton.

The lingo with the players around the billiards and snooker tables included such terms as ‘in-off’, ‘cannons’, ‘spot’, ‘cue’, ‘angle shot’, ‘backspin’, ‘cut shot’, break shot’, ‘curve shot’, ‘frozen ball’, ‘jump shot’, and ‘cushion’. The tables were maintained to the highest standards with large fluorescent lights overhead which were controlled by a coin operated meter giving players 30 minutes of illumination. There was often a queue for the cues and the green or blue cubes of chalks often went missing.

One local businessman who has fond memories of the Catholic Club is Shane Rodgers from Spencer Street.

In fact, in this photograph, taken in 1965, he was the overall winner of the snooker competition, where Shane is pictured with the cup, front row, second from the right.

Shane actually had a double win that night as earlier bets were placed as to who would win the competition.

He backed himself for five bob (shillings) and ended up with £10 or £12 pounds, which in 1965 was a massive amount of money to have won.

He recalled that the most popular card game was solo. Among the players were Jacko Flannery, Tom Brett, Joe Tynan Carol O’Boyle, who worked in Molloy’s in Newtown, and Tossie Kelly.

He continued: “Leo Shaugnessy was fairly handy at the snooker, while Jimmy Gavin was a great billiards player. Christy Cresham, Francis O’Brien, Matt Flannery, Ger Foy and Joe McGlynskey were also keen players. Charlie Callaghan (the sheriff), who was a brother of Mrs. McInteer on Gallows Hill, also played.

“You had to put in two bob to activate the overhead light on the tables. The television in the upstairs room was installed by Dermot Fahey and the club had to pay him 12 shillings and six pence a month for it.

“The club eventually closed due to a lack of interest. A new club was set up in the old St. Gerald’s College on Chapel Street and one of the snooker tables from the Catholic Club was installed there. I don’t know what happened the other two tables.”

Shane recalled the big pot-bellied stove in the snooker room. Ger Foy used to put in on and it used to be red hot.

He added: “We used to go around to other towns visiting other clubs, to the likes of Westport, Ballyhaunis, Ballina, where there were two clubs, the Moy Club and one near the post office, and Swinford, where we were always well looked after.

“We had a crowd down from Athlone one Sunday with a return trip to Athlone and Christy Cresham had a Volkswagen and he drove us up. The interest in snooker and billiards was very high, as was the expertise.”

Today the Linenhall Arts Centre is a highly popular venue and at the moment it is staging an exhibition of photographs, drawings, installation, sculpture and film, which continues until September 26.

However, those males of my age, who visit the centre, will still hear the ghostly ‘collision’ of the long forgotten snooker and billiard balls.