The same can be said of the Tuesday Club at St Patrick’s Irish Club in Leamington Spa which held a lunch to celebrate the patron saint on Tuesday in the lead-up to the full celebration on the big day itself, 17th March.

Fethiye Times was invited to attend, an invitation that some may find strange for a Fethiye newspaper.

So what do St Patrick’s Day, earthquake donations and Leamington Hibernian FC have in common?

Rewind to 2018

Some of you may remember in 2018 when we first met Sheena and Ewan Macleod who made a donation of children’s football kits from Leamington Hibernian FC to a school in Günlükbaşı, Fethiye. 

Five years later, Sheena and I met up again in the UK, this time as a result of the devastating earthquakes in southeast Türkiye and northern Syria. Sheena has been actively involved in fundraisers and aid collections and has received donations of a huge amount of toiletries and hygiene products – all collected by the ladies of the St Patrick’s Tuesday Club.

Leamington Hibernian Football Club was founded by Sheena’s parents, Jim and Joy Barry in 1974. Joy sadly passed away in 2020 after a 5-year battle with cancer. 

The club will be 50 next year and 86-year-old Jim is proud to have had a long and successful career with the Hibs.

I was delighted to be able to meet Jim in person as, being Irish, he was at the lunch and is a prominent member of the St Patrick’s Club.

Jim received a commemorative medal for 50 years of loyalty to local soccer from Birmingham County FA chairman Roger Wood in 2011.

He was also given The Key to Leamington Spa for his dedication to the welfare and well-being of children in the 1990s. 

Jim’s involvement in the game started as a player in 1961 for Improved Hinges, a factory in Warwick, before playing and managing a host of clubs including Warwick Central, Cubbington Albion, Saltisford (now Racing Club Warwick), Leamington Celtic, Haven Rovers and St Peters Celtic.

https://www.facebook.com/leamhibs.fc/

We were also joined by Oliver Williams from the Leamington Courier.

We enjoyed a traditional lunch of soup, soda bread, boiled bacon, colcannon, cabbage and carrots, along with the warmth of the Irish that was, in many ways, reminiscent of Turkish culture.

Situated on Adelaide Road, next to the River Leam, St Patrick’s is open for, and welcomes everyone.

Thank you to Christine Beard, founder of the St Patrick’s Tuesday Club and her team of volunteers who organized the lunch, and a personal thank you from Fethiye Times to Christine and Sheena for the invitation.

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The fundraiser, organized by owner, Kevin Murphy, was a Burger, Bingo & Beer evening with the £15 per person fee being donated to the earthquake relief fund.

50% of the money raised by the bingo was also donated to the fund, as well as 50% of the bar takings between 5:30 pm and 7:30 pm.

Murphy’s Bar staff worked for free and Kevin donated their wages to the fund.

The evening raised a grand total of £1271. 

Speaking to Fethiye Times, Kevin said proceeds from the event will be donated to quake victims in Türkiye via Çalış Children’s Charity, who are collecting donations to purchase much-needed items for those in the quake-hit areas.

Sheena and Ewan Macleod went along to support the fundraiser and sent us some photographs from the evening:

Featured image: The truly amazing staff who gave up two hours of their time to work on the evening. Rachel, Dave, Shannon, Tammy, Georgia, Yasmin, Kevin, Stuart, Colin, John and two voluntary raffle ticket pickers, Oscar and Frankie.

Leamington bar’s earthquake appeal fundraising event makes news in Turkey

We were delighted when it made Warwickshire World news that the fundraiser had made it to the Turkish news as a result of the Fethiye Times coverage.

https://www.warwickshireworld.com/news/people/leamington-bars-earthquake-appeal-fundraising-event-makes-news-in-turkey-4044849

The post Bar in Leamington Spa raises money for Türkiye earthquake appeared first on Fethiye Times.