Whist

Kathleen Mullins and Ronnie Bryant run the whist drive up in Ard Aoibhinn. At the whist drive there are about seven tables with four people at each table. It costs three euro for twenty games and there’s a raffle. If you come first you get twenty euro and if you come second you get eleven euro and if you come third you get eight euro. If you get a quarter you get five euro. It cost fifty cent for one ticket in the raffle.
Sr. Mary, Pasty Smith and Olivia White make tea and get biscuits at half time. There are always laughs when it comes to teatime. The elderly have chats while the young ones play other card games called war and snap. Everyone thoroughly enjoys it when it comes to teatime because thats when we all have the best laughs.
Juveniles get three euro each. There are usually four juveniles that come to Ard Aoibhinn every Tuesday night. They are Donal and Stephen Bracken, Rachel Owens and Deirdre Daly. There are six raffles and there is a ten euro prize and five five- euro prizes.
The whist is supposed to start at nine o’clock but sometimes people come late so you have to wait for them. You have thirteen cards in your hand when you play whist. When the game starts Ronnie Bryant puts up the trump. There are four trumps and they are hearts, spades, diamonds or clubs. There is one trump for each game. If you are lucky you could have the ace of trumps. There are also two games of the twenty where there are no trumps.
The way you win a point is if you have the strongest card. The most points you can get is thirteen. But you hardly ever get thirteen. If there’s a birthday they might have a birthday cake. They have a special Christmas whist where you can win big prizes and the juveniles can win selection boxes. On Shrove Tuesday they eat pancakes. After each game Ronnie Bryant changes the trump.
Some people that go to the whist are Peter Mc Donald, Alice Mc Redmond, Ronnie Bryant, Bridget Daly, Liam White, Olivia White, Maureen Owens, Mary Bracken, and Kathleen Mullen and there are lots more. Lots of people come from Clonaslee, and some come from Mount Bolus. Whist is where people come together to have laughs and play cards.
The youngest person who goes to the whist is Deirdre Daly, aged ten, who is in fourth class. The oldest person who goes to the whist is Dora O’Brien who is 91 years old.