Railway Union Bridge Club Charity Night this year will take place on 24th February. We will be raising funds for LauraLynn Children's Hospice. Members are invited to join us for a fun evening of bridge, to donate spot and raffle prizes and to make cash/sum up/online contributions to our LauraLynn fund.

This pairs event will be pre-registration, places are limited and priority will be given to members in the first instance. Accordingly, it will be members only registration until Friday 14th February. If all places are taken before then, we will let members know. If places remain available at that point, we will advise members and open registration to guests. Register with Eimer O'Rourke (087 6686099), Owen Hensey (087 2255234) or by emailing railwayunionbridge@gmail.com.

Please dig deep for this very worthy cause!

Our summer party took place on Monday 9th of June.  A short game of bridge was followed by drinks in the bar and BBQ spread laid out in the hall. The food, prepared by Off the Rails Catering, was delicious and after the food we returned to the bar for the end of year prize giving. It was a lovely evening to end our formal bridge season.

Winners of end of year awards

Player of the year: Mary Seaver

Best Master: Mary Seaver

Best A1: Walter McNicholas  

Best A2: Cassandra Byrne

Best B1: Liz Kevans

Best B2: Charles Alken

Best Novice: Bill Harte

Most slams bid and made: Walter McNicholas (collected on his behalf by Walter’s son, Macken)

We were delighted to present the Spirit of Railway Union Award to Bernie O'Donnell, who has been a consistent helper, supporter and participant in the bridge club over the years.

In addition to the top 3 President’s Prize places announced 2 weeks ago (overall winner Mary Seaver, 2nd place Mervyn Whaley, 3rd place Walter McNicholas) the awards for best master, A, B and novice thereafter within the president's prize competition were announced.

They were:

Best Master: Graeme Williams

Best A: Jennifer Nolan

Best B: Bernie Price

Best Novice: Anthony Alken

We were also delighted to announce that third place in the recent Celtic Sims competition was taken by Fiona O’Gorman and Caroline Crowley in Railway Union.

We took the opportunity to call out our special thanks to our tournament director John Royds, to Peter O’Meara for his help with setup, to Fiona and Caroline for their work as tournament directors on Thursday mornings and to Ruth O’Maher for her work representing RUBC on the Committee of Railway Union Sports Club.

Hearty congratulations to all our winners and thank you to all our members for making the evening such an enjoyable and fun one.

After 3 weeks of fun and feisty competition, Mary Seaver emerged as the winner of the President’s Prize for 2025. Congratulations Mary from all of us at Railway Union Bridge Club, a very well deserved win! Second place was taken by Mervyn Whaley and third place went to Walter McNicholas.

Congratulations to Tara Crowley and Noelle Sweeney who won the Kay Downes Trophy 2025. Well done from all of us at RUBC!

Chocolate all around! Our Easter Egg competitions took place on Thursday 10th & Monday 14th April Monday's competition was followed by prizegiving in the bar afterwards. First place was taken by Graeme Williams and Jennifer Nolan (NS) and Vicky Pigot and Simon Burrell (EW).

The full list of winners from Monday is as follows, with some pics below:

1st Graeme Williams/Jennifer Nolan and Simon Burrell/Vicky Pigot

2nd Cassandra Byrne/Caroline Crowley and Marianne Gorman/Arlene Hogan

3rd Paula Kilbane/Phil Sweeney and Mary Burke/Julie Rowan

4th Tony Hayes/Marian White and Bob Neilson/Ciaran Scolard

5th Walter McNicholas/Charles Alken and Mervyn Whaley/Paddy Moran.

Thursday Morning's Easter Egg Competition was also won by Graeme Williams and Jennifer Nolan!

Here is the full list of winners from Thursday morning with some pictures below.

1st Graeme Williams/Jennifer Nolan

2nd Anne Cooke/Marian White

3rd Fiona O'Gorman/Joan Casey

4th Madeline Philips/Mary Seaver

5th Simon Burrell/Carol Ann Cummins

6th Ruth Maher/Owen O'Meara

Happy Easter!

The John Burke Cup took place on 24 March 2025. With a great attendance and high spirits, a wonderful night was had through mixing it up with new partners.  Mary Burke presented the Cup (named in honour of her father, John) to the winners Bill Harte and Bob Nielson. In 2nd place were Julie Rowan and Paddy Moran, 3rd place was taken by Eileen O'Regan and Tony Hayes and 4th place was shared by Paula Kilbane/Cassandra Byrne and Anthony Alken/Mary Kane. Congratulations to all our winners! 

A fabulous evening celebrating the work of LauraLynn Children’s Hospice. The bridge was won by Simon Burrell & Triona Glacken (N/S) and by Íde Gavin and Orla Staunton (E/W). Play was followed by our raffle and prize giving in the bar. A fabulous evening for a great cause!

The cheque was presented to LauraLynn Children's Hospice on 20th March, and they were delighted with our donation.

Eimer O'Rourke, Liz Quinn (LauraLynn Children's Hospice) & Anne Cooke

The 2025 Club Teams Competition wrapped up on Monday evening (20th Jan). It was a closely fought competition, with Mary Seaver's team ultimately winning the cup. In addition to 1st, 2nd and 3rd place, there were also awards for best A team, best B team and best Novice team. Congratulations to all the winners and a big thank you to all our members for ensuring a robust and friendly competition over the two evenings. Prizes were awarded in the bar after play with some pictures below:

1st place: Maeve Flangan, Mary Seaver, Sue Power and Niamh Harty

2nd place: Mary McErlean, Mary Masterson, Simon Burrell and Paul Twomey

3rd place: Owen Hensey, Caitriona Hensey, Liz Kevans and Anne Cooke

Best A Team: Rita McAlinden, Yvonne Flanagan, Margaret Moran and Paddy Moran

Best B Team: Norma O'Dowd, Eimer O'Rourke, Eileen O'Regan and Bernie Price

Best Novice Team: Noelle Sweeney, Tara Crowley, Anne Maher and Colette Dempsey.

Merry Christmas to all our members and a Happy New Year!

We had a lovely wrap up on Monday Evening. A short game of bridge, won by Mary de Courcy & Owen O'Meara (N/S) and Mary Cox & Niall Sommerville (E/W), was followed by festivities in the bar.

A lovely opportunity to say a big thank you to our Tournament Director, John Royds.

Santa made a guest appearance with lots of goodies. Food, drink and fun was had - a lovely festive atmosphere! 

It's that time of the year - our Turkey Competition took place on 2 December 2025. A fun evening was had by all as we waltzed around the room in search of new partners, under the patient direction of John Royds. Prize giving took place in the bar afterwards with 1st place going to Anne Kelly, 2nd to Mary de Courcy and third to Marian White.

The full list of winners for the evening was:

1st Anne Kelly

2nd Mary de Courcy

3rd Marian White

4th Martin Quigley

5th Mary Seaver (joint)

5th Walter McNicholas

7th Bob Neilson

8th Su Li

9th Anne Maher

10th Pauline Tighe

11th Colette Stokes (joint)

11th Des Hogan

13th Max McNeill

It is with great regret and sadness that we announce the sudden passing of Deirdre Morris on the 17th November 2024.

Deirdre was a long-standing member of the club, and a former member of the committee. We will remember her great contribution, her fabulous bridge skills, and more importantly her friendly disposition at the bridge table.

She will be greatly missed by the members of Railway Union Bridge Club. Our thoughts are with her family and friends at this sad time. May Deirdre rest in peace.

The Martin Cowley Club Pairs Cup played over 2 weeks, concluded on Monday 7 October. Played with competitive good humour, the evening wrapped up with Prizegiving in the bar when Martin Cowley presented the cup to the overall winners, Mary Seaver and Maeve Flanagan. He also presented a special prize to the pair in 6th position, Margaret and Paddy Moran.

The full list of prizewinners was:

1st place: Mary Seaver and Maeve Flanagan

2nd place: Sue Power and Cassandra Byrne

3rd place: Mary Kane and Anna Murphy

6th place - Special Prize: Margaret and Paddy Moran

Best B Pair: Charles Alken and Drew Fleming

Best Novice Pair: Rachel Gray and Sibeal Madden

1st Session Prize: Ruth Maher and Fiona O'Gorman

2nd Session Prize: Moya Murphy and Ann Marie Feeney

The Club AGM took place on Monday 2nd September. 

The Committee for the year was appointed and all present expressed their appreciation for the work done by the outgoing President, Mary Kane. Eimer O'Rourke was appointed President for 2024/25.