Rubber Bridge had been played in homes in Ballina for many years before the Balllina Bridge Club was formally established in March 1958; this with a view to joining the many people worldwide playing Contract Bridge and which required a hall to hold several tables. In the early years, players took their fold-away tables and packs of cards to the venue and a club grew out of this. Ballina Bridge Congress is an event that evolved from an idea our founding fathers had in the 1970s. The town held a Salmon Festival in July each year which attracted many visitors to the town; several of these from Northern Ireland. Aidan and Ena Cleary were living locally at the time, and on returning from a Bridge Congress in Clonmel in the Spring of 1976 with a prize of a flitch of bacon, the idea of holding a Bridge Congress in Ballina with salmon for prizes was born. At a meeting in the Moy Hotel (home to Ballina Library in Pearse St. at present) on 27th April 1976, a sub-committee which included Anthony Kilcullen, Mrs Rita de Vere, Aidan Cleary, Joe Moran and John Lowry was set up to investigate the possibility of staging a Bridge Congress in the town. The Salmon Festival Bridge Tournament which took place on Sunday 11th July 1976 was a great success and at a committee meeting in The Central Hotel (now The Broken Jug in O'Rahilly St.) in September 1976, Mrs Betty Gormally proposed that the aforementioned tournament be extended: this was duly ratified at the AGM in October on the proposal of Mr. Aidan Cleary, who became the first Ballina Bridge Congress President. The National AGM of the Contract Bridge Assoc. of Ireland is held annually on the first Saturday in July: Ballina Bridge Congress is the first of the new season, held annually on the weekend following the National AGM. Salmon, fresh from the local River Moy, were offered as prizes in the '70s and early '80s until stocks of wild salmon began to dwindle; the practice ceased after the Moy Fishery Company was purchased by the state in 1987. The present day Ballina Bridge Congress is a full weekend event with cash prizes. The Mixed Pairs competition on the Friday night is dedicated to the memory of a brilliant former Ballina Bridge player, Ias Kane, who was killed in a hit-and-run accident in the US in December 1954. Saturday's Congress Pairs is the John Lowry competition: John was a staunch member of the Congress Committee from the very beginning and a former treasurer and president, and won many trophies with his favourite partner, Anthony Kilcullen, both now deceased. The Congress Teams Competition on Sunday is sponsored by Ballina Beverages, Coca Cola, and an Intermediate Teams Competition was added in 2014. There are Open Pairs sessions throughout the weekend. A one-session Novice Competition is held on the Saturday afternoon.

Presidents  Ballina Bridge Congress

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