Catherine Byrne, President of the Contract Bridge Association of Ireland (CBAI), extended an invitation to Nicola O'Dowd, Melissa Brady, and Declan Byrne (no relation) to represent her President's Team in this year's National Master Teams for the Kelburne Cup.

The competition took place in the Midlands Park Hotel in Portlaoise, and was played over three sessions of 30-boards per session, on Saturday 22nd & Sunday 23rd March 2025. The winners were David Dunne, Paul Delaney, Martin Brady & Tomas Roche.

It was an honour to be invited by the CBAI President, and the tournament held great significance for the entire team. Nicola, who began her bridge journey in 2021 under the guidance of Declan Byrne, has progressed from a beginner to competing in this prestigious event in just four years.

Declan, Nicola, and Melissa wish to express their sincere gratitude to CBAI President Catherine Byrne for the incredible opportunity to compete against some of Ireland’s best bridge teams.

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All classes take place ONLINE
♦ Morning & Afternoon Only♦ 

Next courses start SEPTEMBER 2025

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Beginners Term 1
Monday 10:30am - 12:30pm

Taking names for September 2025 - Email Declan to add your name to the list

Suitable for complete beginners with no prior knowledge of bridge.

Introduction to the game of bridge; Introduction to the ACOL bidding system. Introduction to Club Bridge & Online Bridge; Mini-Bridge, Bridge Scoring; Beginners Bidding & Play; Bridge Hand Evaluation; Opening Bids; Partner's Responses, Basic Card Play and More.

Improver (Level 1) Go further with better bidding
Monday 2:00pm - 4:00pm

Suitable for progressive novice and intermediate players that want to look beyond opening and responding bids and progress to better contracts with confidence.

A short revision of basic bidding followed by Reverse bidding, Slam bidding, Tournament Play, Card Play & more.

Improver / Intermediate (Level 2) Advanced
Tuesday 10:30am - 12:30pm 

Suitable for experienced intermediate and some novice players that want to learn about leads, signals & defence. Also included are popular bidding conventions and hand evaluation (Weak 2's, Losing Trick Count and more).

Bid & Play with Guidance
Tuesday 2:00pm - 4:00pm

This course has a wide range of appeal and is suitable for progressive novice, improvers and some intermediate players. It's a bid & play styled course with a short lesson followed by play with guidance and discussion.

To keep updated when enrolments open and receive the odd news bulletin

Course = 10 weeks | 2 hour lessons | €150 per person | Course Notes provided

All classes are organised ONLINE using a combination of ZOOM & RealBridge

For further information contact:
Declan Byrne, email: learnbridgeonline@gmail.com
Mobile: 085 - 2606102