This section deals with the history of Go in Ireland before the time when I started playing there. That is, somewhere in the 1900′s to the beginning of 2004. The bulk of the information comes from old Go journals, newsletters, and magazines. There are undoubtably more stories waiting to be told, and at present, only a few anecdotes have been added into the contents here. So we can say with certainty that the history told here is incomplete, but I hope that you can enjoy reading it nevertheless. Rest assured that all contributions are greatly welcomed.

So where does our story begin? Here and there we can find evidence of individual Irishmen who have played the game. John Gibson has said he learnt to play from the book Go and Gomoku, which he read somewhere around the year 1976.  A certain Tony Hart entered a Go playing computer program in the very first tournament of its kind, but sadly it got knocked out in the first round. You can see its game here. Eugene Curtin, a former Irish Chess Champion, picked up the game while working in Texas, USA in 1986. These are just three examples of individuals who played.

The first known club was at Trinity College Dublin. There an academic of Polish origins,was responsible for allowing players to gather together within the grounds of TCD to play Go. This was in the late 1960s or early 70s, which was a rather difficult period in Irish history what with the onset of the Troubles. We can but imagine that proceedings at club sessions were somewhat more tranquil. Who exactly played there though, well that is unclear. There are sadly no written records which could document this fledgling club.

By the 1980s the game was played in Collegians Chess Club (Dublin), in Trinity College Dublin, and perhaps elsewhere. For instance, Alec Beckett, an old chess playing friend, informed me  of a chess player he knew who had been very keen on the game, and that once that he had seen a real goban – solid wood, with 4 legs – up for auction. It seems unlikely that you’d acquire an item that could set you back for as much as 500 pounds without learning how to play! This is only evidence of informal meetings or isolated players, and as such we can say that there was not yet any hint of a central structure, for no co-ordinating body yet existed for most of the 1980s.

It was in late 1988 that things changed when a player from Japan came to live in Dublin. This gentleman could very accurately be described as a dedicated fan of Go, eager as he was to take every opportunity to play the game. He, Toshima Isao, reportedly wrote to the British Go Association begging for help in creating a club in Ireland to allow him to play with others, and he was then delighted to learn from them that people were actually already playing in Dublin. With his arrival, the incentive appears to have been created to actually form an Irish Go Association, which was indeed founded in 1989. The core of the organisation at this time included Noel Mitchell, Isao Toshima, John Kenny, and Paul Eustace. Games took place either at Toshima’s house, or at the Trinity College games room. The birth of the association spawned a relative flurry of activity, with exhibitions being made at Gaelcon and Leprecon. After a letter to the British Go Journal, the United Kingdom’s Francis Roads travelled to the former convention to give assistance. It seems that he enjoyed presenting the game there, although he did complain, however, that some members of the association were playing bridge for 4 hours a day. Why couldn’t they devote the same amount of time to Go? (A good question!)

Then, in 1990, we can read in the IGA Newsletter 3, the amusing announcement that a second group of Go players has been found to exist in Dublin! Of course, it is not really so hard to imagine that with a niche game like ours, such a case of parallel existence can happen. It was the Collegians Go club which had been found, and it was headed by John Gibson and Eugene Mallon – both Chess players. According to this same newsletter, subscribers (as of March 1990) were to be found in the following locations:

North Dublin(14), South Dublin(50), Belfast(1), Co Antrim(1), Cork(1), Kildare(4), Portlaois(1), Limerick(2), Waterford(5), Wicklow (3).  

The first Irish Open was held in the centre of Dublin at the Power’s Hotel in March, 1990. The winner was, quite fittingly, Toshima Isao (2-dan) who also had the title of Sensei of the TCD club. Noel Mitchell, whose rank was then placed at 1-kyu, came in second place, which was thus enough to establish himself as the first Irish Champion. Finishing in third place was Paul Eustace (5-kyu). At the same time a small challenge match was played between the Isle of Man and Ireland, which arrived at the drawn result of 2:2. Later in the same year, the second half of the match was played at the Isle of Man club, and this time the IoM team won 3-1, securing an overall victory of 5-3. This competition seems to have been enjoyed by all concerned, for between them the IOM and Dublin club then set up a challenge competition for the KMPG Peat Marwick McLintock shield – which with a name like that was donated by chartered accountants, obviously.

The first inter-club match took place on the 27th of June, 1990 at the White Horse bar – close to the Liffey – making the Collegians team the home side. The match score is given below, but let us also note that there were now also clubs in Trim (contact Justin Wallace) and Bray (organiser unknown).

The same location played host to a summer lightning tournament in the same year, but the name of the winner is not recorded for posterity. Later in the year a match was played between ‘Dublin’ and Dundalk. For a club had been started in Dundalk Regional Technical Institute by Henry Bacik and Maurice O’Reilly – both lecturers. The club apparantly had as many as 30 beginners playing at one point! Sadly the Dubliners gave them a good hiding, Isao Toshima, Yoko Toshima (Isao’s wife), Noel Mitchell and Damien Lynch providing the muscle.

The Irish Go Association joined the International Go Federation in 1990, but were not listed as an official EGF member until 1992. Not, of course that EGF membership is required for joining the IGF, despite what some may try to tell you. As a result of the IGF membership, national champion, Noel Mitchell gained the right to travel to Japan to play in the World Amateur Go Championships(WAGC). For all aspiring players, this has to be something of a dream come true. Nevertheless, this was no fairytale competition, but a tough affair. Indeed, what else would you expect from such an event? His first game saw a loss against Sorin Gherman (3-dan) of Romania. Sorin would go on to become an insei at the Nihon Ki-in in Japan, and reach the rank of 6-dan. In fact, as an illustration of the nation’s still fragile strength, Noel won only 1 game in the whole competition, against the (tragically) terminally ill Jurgen Mattern (6-dan).

The next Irish Championship was held in January 1991, this new competition was presumably created in part to select the next participant to the WAGC. The tournament was open to all those at least at the rank of 6-kyu, which meant that 4 people entered. Noel Mitchell(1-kyu) and Damien Lynch(3-kyu) reached the final, which was won 2-0 by Noel. Isao Toshima, by now almost wearing the title of Father of Irish Go, sadly returned home to Japan at the start of the year. The Irish Open was won by IOM player David Phillips, who blocked any chance of a poetic final victory in Isao Toshima’s final tournament in Ireland. As in the previous year, a match was played between the Dublin club and the Isle of Mann club. Again the first leg, which took place at the Irish Open was a 2:2 draw, but Ireland lost the second half again, this time 2-1, at the Isle of Mann Congress. Adding to Japanese patronage of the game was amateur 5-dan player Mr. Akihiro Kumagai. He visited Dublin for 1 month this year, and played several teaching games with local Irish and Japanese players. This year Noel Mitchell managed to go 1 win further in the WAGC, picking up victory over the Phillipines and Thailand.

1992 was described as « a quiet year for the IGA » in the ranka yearbook, but I am not sure if this was entirely accurate. The first Belfast Open took place, a 3 round affair, which was held in July at Queen’s University. Paul Donnelly, 6-kyu, was the main organiser, but Tony Goddard, playing at 3-dan (!), was the winner. Liming Wang, 1 dan, made his first recorded tournament appearance in Ireland as this event.  The tournament report claims that mortar fire was heard, but this is not supported by press reports from that day. Besides those listed in the tournament report, it is not clear who exactly was playing in the city of Belfast at that time. Paul Donnelly was working on a PhD at QUB under the title « Evolving Go Playing Strategy In Neural Networks », hence by association at the very least, computer science academics like Danny Crookes and Patrick Corr at least learnt about the game. From a brief conversation I had with one of the system administrators of said department, he remembers people playing in the department. Chess playing friends of Tony Goddard may also have learnt to play – for instance I know that a certain James O’Fee played the game, but I believe that he learnt of it independently.

In November the first Irish (Open) Handicap tournament was held at the Royal Dublin Hotel, and was won by John Gibson, who was then playing at 5-kyu. Unfortunately the turnout was relatively low, with only 7 players choosing to take part. Possibly this is a natural hazard with handicap Go tournaments, which somewhat pale in terms of prestige beside their regular fellows. There was an Irish Women’s title match as a result of an invitation to the Women’s World Amateur. This was won by Naomi Gibson, daughter to John, against Tara Mitchell. But she either had no interest, or no availability, to play in the tournament in Japan itself. Noel Mitchell was again the country’s representative at the World Amateur Go Championship, but he had an off year, scoring only 1 victory against Venezuela. The Irish Open was won by Taro Matsumoto, 3-dan, (yet) another Japanese player who helped to promote the game here. 1992 also saw a very important event indeed, in that the first rating list was published in September. Of course, as we all know, a rating list is second only to a crosstable in terms of importance.

Here, we can make a slight pause to reveal the current location of some of these players. Mary Mulvihill is now running Ingenious Ireland. Henry Bacik , who is originally from Czechoslovakia, has now retired from Dundalk Tech were he was active in running a club. He no longer seems to play Go, but is quite active in other ways – sometimes politically. Eugene Mallon was a bookseller in Dublin  - shop now closed -and a cousin of the SDLP politician Seamus Mallon. This is not a great claim to fame, but it is noteworthy that Ira Einhorn, who was known to the authorities in the USA as the Unicorn Killer, has appropriated Eugene’s name by 1992. Around about 1985 Ira Einhorn had played Go in Ireland with John Gibson, Eugene Mallon, and the like, under the assumed name of Ben Moore. Attending the fledgling Go Club was actually partly what gave him away, and he had to flee Ireland after the feds caught on to his whereabouts. Ira was later arrested in rural France, and with some considerable amount of difficulty extradited back to the USA. Bernard Palmer and Eamonn Keogh are both still active in Irish Chess politics, an area which I would recommend others stay well clear of. John Kenny is now working in London at McAfee, and doesn’t play on the tournament scene any longer. Also happening in September was the Annual General Meeting of the Irish Go Association. Bernard Palmer was elected as Chairman, Noel Mitchell was elected as Secretary (he was formerly Public Relations Officer), Eugene Mallon was Treasurer and responsible for the Newsletter, and finally John Gibson took on the PRO post, with added responsibility for ratings and sponsorship.

By now, the national championship had been beefed up. Starting in November 1992, and running until January 1993, there was an 8 player championship league, to decide who would play (Noel) for the title. Bernard Palmer finished 6-1, ahead of Aidan Murphy 4-1, and Brian Gallagher on 5-2, and though not all games were finished, he was declared the winner and given the go ahead to start his final against Noel. Noel was too strong however, and won the final comfortably, by 2 games to nil during the month of February 1993. You can see one of their games here. At this stage he was now sporting the rank of 1-dan, thus claiming a place in history as the first Irish dan player.

The fourth Irish Open took place at the Royal Dublin Hotel in March 1993, where just 10 players fought over 3 rounds. Gerry Mills, a great supporter of the game in the UK and Ireland, came first on tiebreak. Second were C.Klawe (1d) and Noel Mitchell (1d). Sad news came in the form of the departure of Mr Sasada, who was involved in JETRO, and Mr T.Iwanami of the Japanese embassy – a long term friend of the IGA. This did not stop the publication of the next rating list, which looked slightly larger than before.

As we can see, there were now a growing number of dan level players; although Gerry Mills was not resident in Ireland of course. This led to the proposal of a top player round robin for the summer of 1993, but no details about such an event survive. Inter-club matches were also planned, but again, no records of these survive. What is recorded are the visit of Japanese professional player Hirano Masaaki 6-dan, who played simultaneous games with the locals in the Pembroke Inn. Mr Masaaki was accompanied by amateur 6-dan Dr  Satoshi Masaoka. Also visiting once again in July was Akihiro Kumagi 5-dan. Noel Mitchell again travelled to Japan for the World Amateur, where this year he made a better showing, picking up 3 wins this time.

In a less far flung location, Port Erin on the Isle of Man, John and Noel failed to win back the challenge shield at the Isle of Man Congress. Back in Dublin the Irish Open Handicap took place in November, but sadly only 8 players took part in this 6 round swiss. This sort of poor turnout was very sadly just the first of many in Dublin competitions. The winner, on tiebreak, was David Wickham. Stephen Flinter, who was playing his first tournament, was the man he edged out. John Gibson, the organiser, managed to gain third place. Also taking place in November was the next edition of the Irish Championship (93/94) for which a certain Stephen Flinter qualified. Noel Mitchell whitewashed the opposition, whilst John Gibson picked up 2nd place. Exactly who came third is not clear, since 1 game is missing from the last published table of results. Two games are available from the competition, Bernard -v John, and John -v- Noel in the final. Here is the rating list from February 1994, not that I like tables of information or anything.

The Irish Open saw a much stronger field than in previous years. A total of 25 players were participating in the competition. Tony Goddard came in first place, ahead of Cheng Gong (2-dan), T.Matsumoto (3-dan), Noel Mitchell (2-dan), Tony Atkins (2-dan), then Gerry Mills (1-dan). You can view the game between Tony and Noel here. August 94 saw a quick visit from 2 Chinese professionals (Wang Guanjun 8-pro and Chen Zhi Gang 6-pro) who were on a tour of Britain and Ireland. They played a series of teaching games with the local players in the Pembroke Inn, before going on a tour of Dublin. It appears that both were quite thirsty during their visit, as Bernard Palmer offered to be their guide. Chen Zhi Gang is from the Guang Dong province and is now the coach of the professional team Guang Zhong. Wang Guanjun is from the Henan province, and is chief coach of their professional team. It is sadly somewhat unlikely that their visit to Ireland helped them acquire these positions. October saw promotions to upcoming players for Stephen Flinter to 1-kyu, with Paul Donnelly and John Gibson reaching 2-kyu. Visiting player Mark Ivey won the Irish Open Handicap tournament. John Gibson was the nation’s representative at the WAGC, where he performed well to pick up 3 wins amongst the opposition. John qualified to play in the WAGC after the introduction of a rule to disallow the same player travelling to the WAGC twice in a row. In 1994, after John represented the nation, a new rule was introduced, the creation of the points system that still survives in its essential form today. This was to make sure that the strongest player wasn’t the only one to benefit from the formative experience of the WAGC, but rather that it was shared around more equally between the top players. Finally in 1994 there was a Collegians Club tournament. Although it is documented in newsletter 11, it is not really clear ( to me) what the result was.