Corby’s Irish Centre to celebrate 50 years this weekend

The club was opened in October of 1974 by a group from Corby’s Irish community who set out to build a social club that they and their friends could use.

According to Aiden Flynn, 86, and Frank Sheridan, 90, two founding members of Corby Irish Centre, the idea to build the club was conceived around 1966 or 1967.

The Irish Association, as they were then known, over the next couple of years applied to Corby Development Corporation for a site for a social club and spoke to various breweries to see if they would back them with funds.

Frank said: “We just met up then decided, ‘why don’t we try and get an Irish Centre going?’.

“We made a little committee among ourselves, started raising some funds, and running dances, and selling football tickets.

“We got up to £10,000 then we started approaching breweries.”

Aiden said: “We realised we needed to raise a good deal of the funds ourselves, as in speaking to both parties the first question was: ‘what are the state of your finances?’

“We then started to run a Wednesday night social at Our Lady’s Social Club where we had music, dancing, bingo and a very successful ‘tote’ which ran until 1980.

“We also booked the civic centre for the big nights: St Patrick’s Day and Boxing Night.

“We had troupes of Irish dancers and showbands from Ireland who would draw big crowds.”

It took them seven or eight years to raise the necessary funds and were eventually backed by a brewery, which the club is still with to this day.

Frank said: “Two or three breweries we did approach just didn’t want to know – ‘Just a bunch of Irish guys fighting on a Saturday night’!

“One did take a chance on us and never looked back and it’s the same brewery to this day. Mitchells and Butlers, now Coors.”

Aiden said: “By the time we reached 1974, we had reached a sum of over £10,000 in funds by the sheer determination of many people giving their efforts and time in fundraising.

“We had setbacks along the way but Mitchells and Butlers brewery were prepared to back us and we had a grand opening of the centre in October 1974.”

Once the club opened its doors, it quickly established itself as the place to be.

Frank said: “Once the club opened here it just went off with a bang.

Aiden said: “It did, we had a lot of people come and we had honorary members, there wasn’t just strictly Irish people, a person that wasn’t Irish we’d give them honorary membership.

Frank said: “It went off very, very well.

“We had to split shifts then under the law, we opened at 2.30 in the afternoon, closed, then opened again at six.

“If you weren’t at the door at six o’clock on a Saturday night, you didn’t get your seat, and everybody wanted to sit in the same seat.”

At the time when the Irish Centre first opened, Corby Steelworks employed about 13,000 people in the town.

Many of the members, including both Aiden and Frank, worked in Corby steelworks – Aiden for 21 years, and Frank for 25.

Frank said: “The shift work was very good to us in a way.

“People coming off 6am to 2pm, they’d pop in, people on 2pm to 10pm would have a couple of pints before they went home, and even some used to have a couple of pints before going on night shift.

“The way the shifts worked was two-two-three – two 6am to 2pm, two 2pm to 10pm, and three night shifts – in a continuous cycle.

“When you’re doing that you’d get two days off, and the boys on days off would come in here and have a few pints, there was nothing much else to do.”

This is also the reason why, in all of the early Irish Centre Committee pictures, not every member is present, due to some working on different shifts.

In the past 50 years the club has continued to grow.

Since their opening, the club has extended their hall and in the late 1980s they purchased more of the land, all the way up to the road.

Aiden said: “Over the last 50 years many people have given great service to the club, the committee, the staff, and of course the members who have so loyally served us too.

“Sadly with the passing of 50 years there are members of the club and those of the original committee who are no longer with us but their contribution lives on and will always be remembered.”

The club is having a 50th anniversary celebration party tomorrow (Friday), a ticketed event, welcoming many of the regulars from throughout the years.

They’ll also be celebrating on the date of the anniversary (Sunday, October 27) with three events throughout the day.

Kicking it off they will have a family celebration party from 1pm to 4pm.

DJ John Headley will be keeping guests entertained with music, games, and bingo and food will be available.

In the evening they will be having live music from the band, Missing The Ferry, in the hall. Doors for this open at 7.30pm and close at 11.30pm. A grazing buffet will be available.

Also their Sunday night quiz will be on from 8pm onwards in the bar.

No tickets are needed but guests must have their membership card with them.