They've always been friendly and the Guinness and smiles remain plentiful, but times are tough for the welcoming folk at the Canberra Irish Club.
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Modern communications and restrictions on smoking and pokies have meant a weakened grip for the Weston Creek club on those with an Irish heritage, past and present club presidents said this week.
Sean Cahill, from Monash, was president for five years from 1994 and remembers a not-too-distant past where the club was the only regular place for news and a call home for Christmas cost nearly half a week's wages.
"The world was a very big place back then – there was no internet, no [Dublin-based sports channel] Setanta, no mobile phones," he said.
"On St Patrick's Day in the '80s you can't even move around here, and every Friday night was like St Patrick's Day."
Seamus Donoghue, the first club president at the Weston Creek site, said the modern Irish club was incorporated in 1975 after a union among three groups of Irish Canberrans – the "10 pounders" who came to Australia in 1968-69, those who come to work on the Snowy hydro scheme after World War II and the earlier settlers who had been in Australia for generations.
A place where the divisions of home were left behind, the club had its first location in Belconnen from 1982, then – thanks to the cashed-up Mt Isa Irish Club – was able to buy the property at Weston Creek, its home since 1986.
"Everybody from north, south, east and west would talk to each other here – they wouldn't [have] at home, they'd throw stones at each other," life member Joe Lodding said.
In addition to karaoke every Friday night, the club now hosts a range of Irish organisations including the Friends of Ireland group, Irish language classes and the Celtic choir.
Peter Whelan took over as president last month and, despite a membership of about 5500, said the club had been in the red for about four years.
"The main thing is the government, no smoking including on decks ... every decision they make, such as note dispensers, you can see it on the books," he said.
"People don't have that [communication] need, but they still have the cultural need, passing the dancing on to the kids, for example."