By Denis O’Hara
RANDAL McDonnell, mine host of the iconic Blue Room at Cushendun Hotel, was taken by surprise on Thursday last (August 6) when members of the local Robert Emmet GAC Quiz team marked his 80th birthday with special tributes.
The proprietor of the river-mouth hostelry has been a generous benefactor of the Emmet’s weekly fund-raising Quiz which has been, until the present Covid 19 lock-down, a constant stream of financial help to the Club for almost thirty years.
Mrs Marie Mort, a Quiz Committee official, said: “We couldn’t let the occasion go by without recognizing Randal’s 80th birthday. Our Quiz team decided on a special tribute. We presented Randal with a specially engraved mirror, featuring a picture of the village’s McBride’s pub, which his family was associated with for decades.
“Fr Perry Gildea, one of our regular quizzers, kindly made the presentation. The Quiz was launched almost three decades ago by Mrs Pearl McQuillan, when she and her late husband Danny generously hosted the Quiz in their Bay Hotel, Cushendun.
“When the Bay Hotel closed forever Randal came to our rescue by offering the use of his nearby premises. We have been there ever since, never missing the Weekly Quiz until this present lock-down.
“We are especially grateful to Randal. The venue in the Cushendun Hotel premises has been a great source of enjoyment every Thursday evening. So, we did not want this special day go by without wishing Randal a ‘very happy birthday’.
“He has been an ever faithful supporter of our fund-raising Quiz programme, which also donates to various charities. Ever since the Emmet’s Quiz began Mrs Pearl McQuillan has been our enthusiastic quiz-master.”
With typical modesty the redoubtable Randal, a Justice of the Peace who spent some thirty years a Councillor in the old Moyle District Council, where he was elevated to Chair that Council before retiring, wondered what all the fuss was about.
“I was preparing to go for my mid-afternoon walk on the beach, went outside to find a horde of people waiting to greet me. It was a very pleasant surprise. There was no need for this, really.
“Not only was I presented the specially designed mirror, but also baskets of fruit, and a commissioned painting of the original Cushendun Hotel, which was opened by my grandmother, Elizabeth McBride, in 1927. This is an intriguing painting, of great historical significance, locally. Beside the present Cushendun Hotel site is the old Anchorage Hotel, and nothing else.
“This new 20-bedroom Anchorage Hotel, built by Maurice Finlay, opened in 1924, had some restoration completed and a name change to the Glendun Hotel when purchased in 1928 by the Elliott family, who later added a further facility by building the iconic Bay Hotel in the mid 1930’s.”
Incidentally, Maurice Finlay, a giant of a man and noted salmon fisherman and oarsman, was a member of the Cushendun Brian Boro hurling team that won the second Feis na nGleann ‘Shield of the Heroes’ final of 1905.
Cushendun beat holders Carey Faughs in a repeat of the inaugural 1904 Feis decider at Waterfoot. The Brian Boro team later had the name change to Robert Emmet GAC.
Incidentaly the Emmet’s begin their Junior Hurling Championship campaign tomorrow (Sunda) when they host Loch Mór Dál gCais at the Riggs at 2pm