Maureen Smyth calls a number.
“I’ve never done this before so googled how to call Bingo,” said Maureen Smyth, as she took her place behind the small Bingo ball cage filled with multi-colored numbered balls at Maggie O’Neill’s Pub in Drexel Hill on Thursday night. “It said that the caller isn’t the most important thing in the game, that you shouldn’t speak in monotone and you shouldn’t make jokes or you can’t do the job. So let know how I’m doing.
“Oh,” she added, breaking one of the rules immediately, “if you or someone you know has a gambling problem, bring them to the next Irish Network-Philly Bingo night.”
And so it went all night. B 15, O 68, N 44, I “tirty-tree.”
“Oh, they told me not to use that one. Okay, I’m one and done,” laughed the tall, blond outgoing Smyth, owner of Havertown Auto Tags,cosponsor, with McCollum Insurance, of the first annual event.
But she wasn’t done. When one woman, sitting at the long tables in Maggie’s upstairs bar, groaned when her one remaining number wasn’t called, Smyth asked her “What number do you need?” The woman answered, and Smyth, without breaking stride, pulled another ball out of the cage and retorted, “Today’s not your day.”
Bingo was an out of the box choice for a fundraiser for Irish Network-Philadelphia, part of a nationwide networking group for people of Irish descent—usually professionals—to meet periodically to develop relationships, the kind that often translate into business success. They usually do it with monthly happy hours, where most of the minglers are still in their business suits. There were no business suits in evidence Thursday night.
“We were looking for something different to do,” said IN-Philly’s chair Bethanne Killian. “[Board member] Karen Boyce McCollum and I were talking about doing Quizzo, but then the Irish Center did a Quizzo fundraiser. So one of the other of us said, ‘The Irish love their Bingo.’” She looked around the room, where every table, booth, and bar stool was filled with people armed with Bingo daubers and two or three Bingo cards. She grinned. “The Irish love their Bingo.”
Yes we do. If you grew up with a weekly Bingo game at the parish hall, the good news is that Bingo is back, and it may still be in the parish hall. But this time, local Irish dance schools, sports clubs, charities, that scramble for operating money every year have taken it over and given it a twist.
The prize table may hold expensive handbags, bottles of booze and gift cards—and it’s going to be lucrative for both the winners and the sponsoring organizations. The grand prize at the IN-Philly Bingo event was a donated lavender beach bike (won at the end of the evening by Noreen Conley, wife of IN-Philly treasurer Chris Conley).
The Cummins School of Irish Dance and the Tara Gael Dancers, an adult Irish dance group, have both held successful “Designer Bag Bingo” events at parish halls. It’s become more popular in bars too. In fact, the Bingo set up that Maureen Smyth used was borrowed from Cawley’s Pub in Upper Darby. “They usually have their Bingo on Thursday nights too but fortunately they just stopped doing it for the spring,” said Karen Boyce McCollum.
The Bingo craze is infectious. On Thursday May 7, the Young Irelands Gaelic Football Club will be holding a fundraising “Bingo Blitz” at the Highland Park Fire Company at Park and Cedar Lanes in Upper Darby.
“We usually like to have a couple of fundraisers a year and Jessica Stevenson, a wife of one of the players came up with this fantastic idea,” says Trish Daly, a spokesperson for the Young Irelands. “I’ve been to many Bingo events in the last few months and they were all extremely popular and successful. I think people just love a night out with friends and the chance to win great prizes. And people just love playing Bingo!”
And, she adds, in usual Young Irelands’ style—this is the club that brought you male and female amateur boxers for a “Fight Night” fundraisers—“we’re doing it a little different and making it co-ed. This allows us to reach a lot more people and the prizes are much more interesting. But don’t worry, ladies. We still have handbags!”
See pictures from Thursday’s fun below.
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