Dublin Hammers - Christmas Party 2018

The Christmas Party - 15th December 2018

Ah December... when all things turn to the celebration of our favourite Christian (and marketing) festival... Christmas. Once again the Dublin Hammers pulled out all the stops and had a humdinger of a Christmas Party.

As I’ve said before, this party is not only the highlight of the Christmas time as far as I’m concerned, but it can also be the highlight of our football season!! This year as we all gathered it was strange to see us sitting in the top half of the table having won four games in a row... if this keeps up we’ll be looking for a Champions League spot in a year or so!

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The decorators had done a fantastic job with our usual venue, upstairs in Brannigans, with banners, flags, hats and reindeer antlers to get us all in the mood. There were a few of the regulars missing, but the usual suspects and their better halves turned out to have a good time and boy did we do that.

The ever jolly Liam (with a bit of weight he could be Santa!) welcomed us all to the proceedings and started with the first order of business for the night... the free trip draw. As ever the barman was asked to do the honours and the usual bribes were offered but Eoin being the professional that he is turned them all down, and then he picked out the winning name of... Billy Corr, which was warmly greeted by all and sundry.

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Now the raffle is always interesting at this party as some of the prizes would leave you wondering just what people were thinking. This year we had a power sander, a coffee maker, a pair of children’s magic gloves along with the usual wines, spirits, vouchers and... a box of Heroes – which the normally sedate Liam took exception to! A prize not on display and nearly forgotten about was a framed West Ham Programme from the 80s (which wasn’t ready for the night) and thankfully my ticket was drawn just after Liam was reminded of it... happy days for me and groans from Betty as she realises there’ll be more football stuff on our walls at home.

Anyway, the raffle was sped along by Liam who displayed his usual remarkable patience as he told us to “hurry up”, “pick the poxy wine – it’s only cheap rubbish”, “show off your frock” and “thanks for showing up late Eddie – we’ll restart the raffle!”. Nora was the real winner as she took home the coffee maker and power sander... we don’t expect to see Pat at a game for a while! Emma got the tattoos voucher, Jackie won enough booze to become an alcoholic, Jason won the retro top that if he does grow into he’ll have to seek medical help and Tommy was devastated not to win the Paddy Power vouchers.

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As the raffle rattled on the food came out and credit to Brannigans, who recently won a prize for their gourmet sandwich, for the presentation and tastiness of the grub.

Now singers are always welcome at our Christmas bash and first up was new DH Member, Emma who impressed us all with her song which she sang without the words being displayed on the screen, the rousing cheers she received prompted her to do a second song – again to a great reception. There was nobody brave enough to try and follow her so the music started and the lads hit the floor (thankfully not like Alan last year!!).

After a few tunes the first lady decided enough was enough and sang a Donna Summer classic... no, not “enough is enough” but “Last Dance” and the lads rolled back the years as they threw some classic disco shapes.

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The DJ played a mixture of 80s electronic hits, late 70s ska, early 70s pop classics and everything in between that kept the floor hopping. Throughout the evening we had more singers as Dessie with the Beatles classic “I saw her standing there”, the President and his anthem “Human”, Craig and his Robbie Williams “Angels” and Brian with “Johnny B Good”.

The Christmas classics had everyone on the floor until Betty suggested the Darkness “Don’t Let the Bells Ring”, a great song but not a dancefloor classic as we found out... Fran, our resident DJ saved the day by playing Mariah Carey's "All I Want for Christmas is You". We danced and danced, and danced again as the hits kept coming and when it was time for the national anthem there was a rousing rendition of Bubbles!

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After some delay and great confusion the President made his annual address. Now all those who go to our party know that the President’s Speech is sometimes the highlight of the night as Fran has us all cracked up laughing with a specially commissioned poem.

However, this year was a very sombre affair as he announced that having been President for 21 years (more terms that Michael D) he felt it was time to step aside and let younger blood take the reins (good luck finding younger blood in the Dublin Hammers!). He said that the election will take place on the next official DH trip and that anyone wishing to stand must receive 5 nominations in advance. There was silence (of sorts anyway) as we all realised that this could be the end of an era for the DH regulars and we wondered who would be brave enough to take up the mantle (did I use those Paddy Power bets I won to pick Dessie?).

So, with that news ringing in our ears we decided that the night was not young and neither were most of us, so it was time to head home. Thanks to all those involved in putting this bash together – it really is the highlight of the Christmas period for me – to Brannigans for the food, the pints and for putting up with us every season, Fran the DJ who keeps it all grooving along, Liam for being “Liam” and everyone else. A special thanks to all those who make the effort to be there and make it the classic party it is.

Happy Christmas everyone!

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A big thank you to Gerry Murtagh for taking the time and trouble to write this report!

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