Checkers champion gifted with an extraordinary memory

Con McCarrick, who has died aged 88, was a record-breaking Irish draughts player. He set the world record for the number of simultaneous draughts games played and won, playing 154 opponents in Dundalk in 1982, winning 137 games, drawing 16, and losing just one. He was also the most energetic publicist for the game in Ireland.

As a player, his great memory gave him an advantage. He had details of hundreds of games in his head.

He won the Irish Close Championship, among other tournaments, and was runner-up in the British Open.

He captained the Republic of Ireland team in the European championships, and in several home internationals. At various times, he was a member of both British and Irish, and European, teams.

In the early 1970s he captained the Kilburn team, which dominated London’s draughts scene. His expertise was so valued that he was appointed to referee a world championship match in the United States. Barbados granted him honorary citizenship.

‘Irish Post’

It had been during his decade and a half in London that his playing developed. His day job was as a journalist on the

Irish

Post

newspaper. He did not just improve his draughts skills. Like many Irish exiles, he involved himself in left-wing politics, supporting the International Socialists, precursor of the Socialist Workers Party, whose newspaper,

Socialist Worker

, he sold for a time.

In public McCarrick was seen as a sportsman, but he was as enthusiastic about the arts and was very well read, though reticent about his talents as a short-story writer, poet and writer of family memoir.

Cornelius (Con) McCarrick was born in May 1927, outside Clonacool, in the foothills of the Ox Mountains in southwest Co Sligo. He was seventh of 11 children to Patrick McCarrick, a small farmer, and his wife Brigid (née Ross). After primary education at Cloonacool National School, he won a scholarship to St Nathy's College, Ballaghaderreen. He then became a journalist with the Sligo Champion.

As a young man, he was a Gaelic footballer, handballer, and athlete. As a 17-year-old, he set an unofficial Irish record for his age group in running the mile. He was always determined. In his 20s he accidentally shot himself in the knee while hunting. He defied doctors who wanted to amputate his leg.

After some years in Sligo, he moved to Dublin to work with Aer Lingus. There he met his wife, Marie (née Casey), a Dundalk woman, and they moved to London in the late 1950s.

From his mid-40s he battled ill-health. In the mid-1970s he moved to Dundalk, contributing columns to several newspapers for many years. He developed yet another passion, ballroom dancing.

Teetotaller

A lifelong teetotaller, he liked a bet and could be late for draughts events because he had been to the greyhound track. He maintained his socialist beliefs throughout and was a member of Amnesty International’s Dundalk branch.

He adhered always to a principle he had held throughout his life: to follow his passions, believing they would always lead to interesting places.

Con McCarrick is survived by his daughters Jaki, Sarah and Tracey; son Roger; sisters Una and Justine; and brother Roger. He was predeceased by his wife, Marie.