Bingo! Leitrim town celebrating 40 years of the game with special event

Drumshanbo is celebrating 40 years of Bingo at the Mayflower on the 30th of March, with a special game later this month.

The Bingo has run on Monday nights in Drumshanbo for the past four decades after being started by Father Sean Tynan, with the help of locals Willie Daly and Larry Walsh in 1986.

“They were the bingo men, they used to go to all the bingos around the place,” remembers Tony Tiernan, a director of the Mayflower Hall who has helped run the Bingo since 1986.

He recalls the late father appearing at his door one night, and by the time the priest had drunk his tea and smoked his pipe, Tiernan was roped in to help out.

“We're at it 40 years,” he says. “We're going to give back something to the hall, to the people that're coming.”

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The celebration will be held on the 30th of March at 8pm in the Mayflower, with tea and sandwiches served on the night.

In the early days, up to 1000 people could be at Bingo in Drumshanbo, and though numbers might be smaller than in years past, the importance of the Bingo each week has not changed for the stalwarts each week.

“There are a lot of people that come to us on a Monday night, and it's the only night out, and they enjoy it,” says Tiernan. “They'll sit in the one place when they come on, and they'll park in the one place outside, and if their place is taken, they'll come in, and they'll give out about it,” he jokes.

He is very fond of the characters who come to the Bingo and the fun that they have had through the years, having great craic with those coming to pick up their booklet, the price of booklets have reamined unchanged since Ireland took on the Euro in 2001.

Running the Bingo can be time-consuming at times, with his wife often joking, “That’s your second wife - Bingo.”

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 Tiernan is thankful to everyone, past and present, who helped to keep the show on the road down through the years.

He doesn't believe that the Bingo in Drumshanbo has another 40 years in it, but with the rise of club Lottos, the rising running costs, and no one in sight to take it over, but he plans to keep going alongside his fellow organiser, Vincent McMorrow.

​“I’ll continue for another few years. Vincy McMurray is there. Vincy must be 77 now. He's there 40 years, and I said to him, will you give up after the 40th? Ah no, he says, we'll plug it on for another while.”