Killarney plays host to the European Bridge Championship.
The Great Southern Hotel in Killarney is the venue for the 40th European Bridge Championship. Taking place over sixteen days twenty six teams have come to compete. Several thousand Irish bridge players are watching and learning from the strategies of their European counterparts.
Bridge is a serious, and to the uninitiated, difficult game to play well.
The competition is governed by strict rules, with dividing screens preventing bridge partners from communicating with each other during the game by using visual signals. Playing partners can view the game through observation slits, but opponents must sit alongside each other.
A large team works in the background to ensure an event of this size runs smoothly. Decks of cards are checked and sorted electronically, and an internal close circuit television system films games, permitting spectators who are not admitted to the competition room to view the games.
The European Bridge Championship is estimated to have brought a boost of approximately one million pounds to the economy of Killarney.
An RTÉ News report broadcast on 26 June 1991. The reporter is Tom MacSweeney.
