Full house for Beara’s big drive-in bingo

BY HELEN RIDDELL

IT was a case of ‘handbrakes on, eyes down’ and a full house for Castletownbere’s first drive-in bingo last Friday night.

Despite a power outage, the event which is transmitted over car radios and sees players beep the horn on reaching a full house, was a huge success. Organised by the Castletownbere Development Association (CDA), it saw over 40 cars attending.

For the past few years the CDA have been holding a monthly fundraising bingo in the Beara Coast Hotel. However, due to Covid-19 guidelines on numbers attending indoor gatherings, the group felt it wasn’t feasible to continue.  Noel Forde of the CDA said last Friday was a great success. ‘We had a few teething problems, the rain caused a power outage, but it was soon sorted and everyone was in great form.’

The cars lined up on the pier.

He extended thanks to the Department of the Marine for allowing the use of the town pier and harbourmaster Cormac McGinley for his assistance and the local gardaí.

Noel outlined how the event is run: ‘We sell the bingo books by passing them into each car, bingo is transmitted via the car radio, when people win a line or full house they beep the horn and flash their lights, and we can then pass their winnings into them in an envelope so there is no contact.’ The group are hoping to run the event on a fortnightly basis, with the next event on Friday July 10th at 8.30pm on the west end pier. Proceeds go to the CDA’s Capital Projects Fund.