Snooker still finding its place in a changed world

Nostalgia will always paint over most cracks but memories of overspilling ashtrays or dodgy toilets can’t dispel the memories of a time and a place where bonds were made and games played for a few quid an hour.

The Snooker & Billiards Ireland HQ in Carlow hosting the Macau Casino World Matchplay Billiards Championship. Pic via the SBI

The young Fergal O’Brien was a man of singular focus, but a world of endless choice lay before him every time he walked out the front door of the family home in Bayside.

Snooker had started to worm its way into his life from the day his grandparents gifted him a small 8x4 table at the age of seven. By 14 he was already thinking umpteen shots ahead. He wanted to go pro. Dublin in the mid-to-late-80s was the ideal canvas for that teenager’s ambition.