On a wet winter evening in West Cork, few things feel more familiar than a deck of cards on the kitchen table. Someone shuffles, someone else complains about the last hand, and before long the trump is turned and the game of Twenty-Five is under way. It's often called Ireland's national card game, and for generations it has been part of family life, pub nights and parish hall gatherings across the county.

The game's roots run surprisingly deep. Twenty-Five descends from an old Scottish game called Maw, which dates back to at least 1548. By 1858, an Irish periodical was already describing Twenty-Five and Forty-Five as Ireland's own old games. In other words, the rules being argued over in West Cork kitchens today have been argued over in Irish homes for well over a century and a half.

Forty-Five, its close relative, is still played in many places around Ireland at tournaments known as card drives. The tradition also travelled with Irish emigrants. In Canada, a version called Auction Forty-Fives remains particularly popular among communities of Irish descent in Nova Scotia, so the game will be familiar to some Irish families abroad too.

Card games have also found a second life on screens. Some adults now try blackjack or poker at a casino online on long winter evenings. Those games are a world away from a card drive in the parish hall though.

Rules That Only Make Sense Once Someone Shows You

Anyone who has learned Twenty-Five will remember being confused at first. The game is usually played by four to six people with a standard 52-card deck, and each player receives five cards. The next card is turned up to set the trump suit.

That's where things get unusual. The five of trumps is the highest card in the game, followed by the jack of trumps, the ace of hearts and then the ace of the trump suit. The ace of hearts always counts as a trump, whatever suit is turned up.

There's a lovely Cork connection hidden in the pack too. When diamonds aren't trumps, the ace of diamonds is the worst card in the game. In his 1830 book Traits and Stories of the Irish Peasantry, William Carleton recorded that it was nicknamed the Earl of Cork, supposedly because he was the poorest nobleman in Ireland.

More Than a Game

For many people, the appeal of Twenty-Five and Forty-Five has little to do with winning. A card drive is a chance to get out of the house, meet neighbours and catch up on local news between hands. The stakes tend to be small and the prizes modest, but the rivalries can run for years.

That social side is what makes the card table tradition so hard to replace. No app can reproduce the slagging across the table, the partner who reneges at the worst possible moment, or the familiar faces at the same hall week after week.

Two Very Different Tables

Online casino games borrow some of the same ingredients: cards, chance and a bit of strategy. But the experience is fundamentally different. Online casino games involve real-money gambling, are only for adults aged 18 and over, and are built so that the house has an edge over time.

That's why the sensible approach is to treat them purely as paid entertainment. Setting a budget before playing, taking regular breaks and never chasing losses are all part of staying in control when playing online.

The Rules Are Changing Too

For most of living memory, gambling in Ireland was governed by laws written for a very different country. The Betting Act dated from 1931 and the Gaming and Lotteries Act from 1956. Neither was drafted with a phone in anyone's pocket in mind.

That is finally changing. Under the Gambling Regulation Act 2024, Ireland now has a single regulator in the Gambling Regulatory Authority of Ireland. Its first licences, covering online and telephone betting, came into force on 1 July 2026.

Online casino games are further down the line. The regulator has confirmed that applications for gaming licences, along with several other categories, will open over 2027 and 2028. For anyone who enjoys the odd game online, that part of the rollout is worth watching.

Keeping the Tradition Alive

Screens will keep finding new ways to fill the long evenings. The card table, though, has a habit of outlasting whatever comes along. Twenty-Five has come through centuries of change, carried by the same community spirit that saw Ballinascarthy's Macra club raffle a Ford Anglia in 1961 to help build the local hall.

So when the clocks go back and the rain settles in, it might be worth digging out an old deck. Teach a grandchild why the five of trumps beats everything else. Find out when the next card drive is on in the parish. Some traditions are simply too good to let slip.