The Thursday Club 1988-92

I can't remember who the rest of the 'charter' members were, other than Mick Maher and Hazel Farley. I think Jerome may have been in that initial foray into the 'Pav' tonight but I stand to be corrected on this. If you're out there Jerome.... 

Anyway, to get back to the club itself. We had just started a four year night course in Trinity College Dublin doing a BSc in Computer Science. We were a pretty diverse group, although most of us were already working in some form of IT job although not all of us. The course was on three nights a week, Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. That first Thursday night saw a few of us go for a few drinks in a sort of  'get to know you' session. We deemed it a good idea and decided to expand the group. The first few sessions saw us attend the 'Pav' on campus but it was a bit too boisterous for some of the oldies and we soon moved to the Buttery also on campus. However, for the end of term, we didn't feel the Buttery was appropriate and decided to move off campus. 

By this time, Brian Mick and myself had sort of become the de facto ring-leaders, a sort of triumvirate. I was still working shift work at that time and missed every third Thursday night. But for the last week or two, we had expanded to the Mondays and Tuesdays as well. By the eighth and last week we had found our new home for the next three and a half years, Mahaffy's of Pearse St. The establishment almost lost out on the privelege of hosting our gatherings by changing its name mid-week.

A flyer was duly printed up (complete with the pub's previous name) and distributed to all concerned, a general invite to share a Xmas drink and for the first time, the words 'Thursday Club' were formed. Three other traditions were started that night as well. The tradition of using the blackboard in the lecture hall to announce the drinks session, the tradition of cutting the 8pm to 10pm lecture short at 9pm, and the tradition of inviting the lecturer to join us. All three traditions were strictly adhered to at all end of term sessions after that. 

A lively session was held that night as classmates who never attended a Thursday night session before turned up and indeed many of them ended up with the core crew in Bad Bob's nightclub that night including our beloved lecturer. Another legend was born. Bad Bob's became another spiritual home for us as well as Mahaffy's. 

The Easter break was preceded by a similar if not quite as lively a session and by the time the end of year session rolled around, the Thursday Club was fully functional, complete with 'committee'.

The end of year session also saw the 1st annual awards presentation. I don't know if I'm missing any but these are the ones I still have on file.

• Wimp of the Year 1988/89 :- Vincent Duffy
• Man of the Year 1988/89 :- Ray McGuigan
• Party-Animal of the Year 1988/89 :- Paul Winter
• Kerryman of the Year 1988/89 :- Maurice Healy
• Bailey's Irish Cream Award for Economic Tact 1988/89 :- Ciaran Hayden
• Lecturer of the Year 1988/89 :- Hugh Gibbons

Again if I'm missing anything, my memory is not what it used to be. 

The camaraderie which had been built up that first year was built on during the summer as many of us stayed in touch even after the exams and results (excuses for more drinking sessions, the last exam especially). So much so, that the annual weekend away was started up. A group of intrepid explorers headed west on the Galway train for a visit to the Aran Islands, specifically Inish Mór. The wee hamlet of Kilronan never knew what hit it.

Year 2 began just like its predecessor, Thursday night's were Mahaffy's night but the first term saw a phenomenon unheard of in night classes in Trinity. A silly throwaway comment on the Aran Islands weekend actually sprung into live. The concept that we would go some place different every year led to the idea of a Thursday Club World Tour and as you know every World Tour has to have a t-Shirt.

The lovely Claire Aylward, the slightly sozzled me, the very inebriated Deirdre O'Dowd and the ever-so slightly bemused Ciaran Hayden all bar one resplendent in their club t-shirts. Note that the brown mark on my shirt is a beer stain (on the photograph not my shirt).

The picture above is from our second year trip, this time to Achill Island in 1990, about which more later.

We still had to get through second year. By this time, I had taken up a 9 to 5 job after almost 12 years of shift work so I was now a permanent fixture in Mahaffy's every Thursday night. The owner, Pat Doyle, was a good guy and appreciated our custom. He had actually only purchased the pub shortly before our first Xmas session and had renamed it after a famous Trinity professor from the 18th or 19th century.

Our end of term nights were now marked with reserved seats, complimentary cocktail sausages and/or sandwiches and even more drunken visits to Bad Bob's or the Waterfront. The flyers too were becoming extensive with 'pokes' taken at just about everybody. Nicknames were also prolific. 

Myself and Mick Maher had become after 'Zig' and 'Zag' after the well-known puppets on children's TV programme, The Den. That stemmed from messing about signing the register every night. Soon we had a 'Zip' and 'Zap' to follow, Stephen Mahon and Ciaran Hayden. Aidan Coyne had become 'The Oracle' as in consult the .... Poor old Hazel had the rather unflattering nom de plume of  'The Heap'. And I'm sure there were others which escape me right now.

As You can see we did tend to waffle a lot.

There were a few unfortunate incidents that first term back, however, and I would like to take this opportunity to set the records straight and apologise on my own behalf for one of the transgressions and on behalf of the committee for the other.

So with the above in mind, may I on behalf of the Committee apologise to Vincent for consistently calling him a wimp.

Kidding! We're not sorry Vinnie.... No the apology goes to Karen for the Token Kerry Person remark. We are very sorry Karen but we couln't think of any other position to give you. After all with Hazel on the committee we couldn't have a 'Token Chick' and with Maurice there was no room for 'Token Munster Person'. As for 'Token Civil Servant' well that could have been half the committee.

Unfortunately, Karen took umbrage at this at the time and registered a formal complaint to us and cited the committee as being racist. In reply the committee accepted the charge but mitigated itself by demonstrating that it was also ageist, sexist, fascist, communist and last but not least piss-t.

(It's been years since we've had that joke....)

Anyhow we got over that stumbling block and then came the yearbook, the chronicle of Year One of the Thursday Club as seen through the eyes of its resident protographer (me).

Unfortunately, despite several heartfelt requests, I took an editorial decision to include one or two photos that some people did not want published. I am sorry Hazel and Brian. I promise not to put them up on this website. The controversy about that book meant that it was the only one I ever did. As a consequence when I look for photographs from those four years, I have only a handful from years 2, 3 and 4 and a whole album full of year one.

So far you've got the class photo from the final year, courtesy of a friend of Ray's from the newspaper game. Clever boy Ray, even got all our names typed up and pasted on the back of each. You've also got the Saturday night of our stay on Achill Island. Poor old 'Zap'. It was his first weekend away with us and he got a hard time and not always intentionally.

It started in the Pub on Saturday afternoon. As usual Mick and myself (Zig & Zag) were the co-conspirators. The two of us and Deirdre were in the pub as the rest went rambling. That was the day Deirdre got her nickname, 'Slug'. She complained vociferously that we hadn't 'christened her' yet, so we did. 

Anyway, we did the old 'top up the Guinnes dregs with water' trick. If you don't know it, try it. You get a reasonable pint of 'lager'. Don't drink it. We intended a certain person to drink it (no names mentioned) but instead poor old Ciaran got it instead. It nearly killed him.

Later that night, in the cottage we'd rented the party was in full swing. I'm not going into full detail as to why but there was a lot of snuff being taken. Again Mick and I had a brain-wave and if memory serves me right aided and abetted by the 'Slug' again as well. We appropriated one of the tins of snuff doing the rounds and replaced its contents with coffee powder. We attempted the catch our earlier intended victim but once again 'Zap' intercepted it. A word of warning, never snort coffee and especially not both nostrils. Yuck!

To top off his night, I had 'marked' my sleeping territory earlier but found that someone else had attempted to replace my marker with theirs. I, however, had got there first and proceeded to lay out my sleeping bag when I heard someone attempt to enter the room. I enquired if it was their sleeping bag and got an affirmative. I promptly threw it out the window and informed the owner which I by now knew was Ciaran. As he went into the garden I paniced and decided to lock him outside. He didn't get back in until he had calmed down and agreed to sleep on the floor. 

I admit my cruelty but it was funny at the time.

That trip was taken just before we started year three so I skipped over the awards for Year Two. They were as follows;

• Wimp of the Year 1989/90 :- Vincent Duffy
• Invisible Woman of the Year 1989/90 :- Frances McGee
• Traveller of the Year 1989/90 :- Ray McGuigan
• Party-Animal of the Year 1988/89 :- Declan O'Dalaigh
• Lecturer of the Year 1989/90 :- Hugh Gibbons

As you can see some titles for now 'jobs for life'. Others well.... Fame is fleeting.

The 'invisible person' award was down to work pressures keeping someone away from the lecture halls. Funnily enough that was something that was going to hit me for the next two years. I'd suggest in year three I missed at least 15-20% of all the lectures and in year four almost half. I know for the very last term I attended lectures one night out of 18. I met one of my lecturers in the pub on the last night of term and another in the same pub on the day we graduated.

I know we joked a lot and acted like idiots a lot of the time but I can honestly say that I would not have graduated without the very good friends I had in that class. Without them I would have more than likely given up, chucked it in, whatever. I know I'd have told myself I was taking a year off but had I stopped I would never have gone back. I owe you guys a lot, you know who you are. It was the good times we shared that kept me going. I didn't want to lose that. It was your photocopied notes that helped me pass all the exams. That bit of parchment on my wall that reads

BACCALAUREATUS IN SCIENTIIS COMPUTATORIIS

owes a lot to you. Thank you all.

Anyway Like I said, year three was rough. But we got through it again. There were some who had repeats from year two and we helped them through it. The last exam in year three was special. It was the only year when our exams finished before the June holiday weekend. It was also the shortest period of times between exams which drove us crazy. My ability to cram for an exam for a week beforehand was severely tested when I didn't have a week.

Anyway the last exam, Quantative Methods III, if I recall, was on the Thursday afternoon before the long weekend. It was decided that a return trip to the Aran Islands was on the cards and we were going Thursday evening to avoid the Bank Holiday traffic. So picture the invigilators faces as about a dozen or so people troop into the exam hall with rucksacks on their backs, sleeping bags, tents, pots, pans and kettles tied to them.

Come five o'clock, we were on our way. I think the hip flasks were opened before we even left the exam hall. By the time the bus got us to Euston station they were empty. We were lucky to make it to Eyre Square in Galway as the conductor on the train had several complaints about the noise we made. I thought we were singing. Our 'idol', Brush Shiels from all our nights in Bad Bob's, does a great version of 'The Fields of Athenry'. He sort of rocks it. So what do you when the train is going through Athenry and you're very drunk? It was rather loud and very out of tune.

Anyway we made it to Galway. A few more drinks and it was off to Salthill where we camped the night. PS thanks to the bus driver who waited for Brian....

Next day, back to Galway and the first coach to the ferry and Friday around noon we hit Kilronan again. It was absolutely gorgeous weather as we staggered up the road with our rucksacks, most of us in the 't-shirt'.

Little did we know, but at the time, the BBC Holiday programme were on the island. We were an obvious shot for them. Some months later we were on the BBC.

Another crazy weekend.

"Anyone want to go to a barbecue?"  (Private joke for those who were there...)

Then someone had a brainwave. A graduation Ball. The idea was mooted and the majority seemed in favour so a committee was formed with representatives from the various groups of friends that had developed in the class.

The committee set about their business and we ended up with a formal 'Grad' held in the Shelbourne Hotel. We invited the lecturers, the course director and the head of the department from Trinity.

Many of them attended and told us we were an example to the full-time students. No night class had ever done anything like us before.

Yeah, we did have a good time. They say that your college years are the best but they usually mean full time college.  Well I know I'll never forget those four years even though I've lost contact with everyone over the last few years. I'm hoping some of them (you) will stumble across this site someday and drop me a line, jflucas@eircom.net.

After all one of the last duties I was given was to start organising the reunion.

Jim Lucas

Chairman of the Thursday Club 1988-1992.