80th birthday for bowler Brendan
Brendan Beakley celebrating his 80th birthday at ALSAA.
THERE CANNOT be too many people who choose to spend their 80th birthday on a ten-pin bowling lane but that is exactly what the Aer Lings Ten Pin Bowling Club elder statesmen, Brendan Beakey chose to do.
Unknown to Brendan, the club had plans in place to make the first bowling night of his 80th year a memorable one for the veteran bowler. When he turned up to the ALSAA Bowl, the club had laid on a presentation of an inscribed bowling pin and had the obligatory birthday cake laid on as well as a celebratory meal upstairs in ALSAA. Speaking to the Fingal Independent, Brendan said he began his interest in the sport while working for Aer Lingus in Seattle, Washington in 1970. The bug bit immediately and when he returned to Ireland he played in Stillorgan and then began bowling at ALSAA from the very first day the facility was built opposite Dublin Airport where he continued to work for Aer Lingus. 'I'm still enjoying it.
There can't be too many people around bowling in their eighties,' he told the Fingal Independent. His scores haven't suffered much with age either and he can still turn in a 200 plus game on the lanes at ALSAA. He thanked his fellow club members for the surprise party they laid on for him. 'I knew nothing about it. I was chatting away when Paddy Kilduff started to make a speech and he was halfway through before I realised he was talking about me,' Brendan said. Brendan's wife, Clem is deeply involved in the sport too and is currently secretary of the ladies wing of the Aer Lingus club.
The pair are celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary this year along with Brendan's 80th birthday so it is a momentous year for bowling couple. Originally from Clare, Brendan rose from the Aer Lingus workshops where he joined the company in 1958 to being manager of component overhaul and development when he retired from the airline.
- JOHN MANNING
