Sporting club in Cork celebrates 125 years with calendar of stunning vintage photographs

The evocative black and white images from the turn of the 19th century, which show ladies and gentlemen in all-whites playing tennis on immaculate grass courts on the leafy Mardyke, were captured well before the days of mobile phones, digital photography and social media platforms, and serve as a window into the past, revealing how life in the city once was for some.

And the club has also announced a series of social and sporting events across 2024 to help it celebrate the anniversary.

Club chairman Donal Johnson said 2024 will be a truly historic milestone for the club.

“Over the years, Sunday’s Well has been a sporting haven for generations of Cork families from the time of the Great Cork Exhibition, the Great War in 1914, through the civil war years and into the modern era when the flood on the Mardyke in 2009 dealt an almost fatal blow to the club,” he said.

“We survived those years, and we continue to prosper. I believe the 125th anniversary is an opportunity for the club members and Cork to celebrate and honour our heritage as well as the club’s place in the history of Cork City.” 

Sunday’s Well Boating and Tennis Club is one of the oldest and most highly regarded tennis and squash clubs in the country, playing host to several prestigious annual events such as the Munster Open Tennis Championships and Munster Veterans Tennis Championships, as well as hosting several interprovincial and international events over the years.

Today, it has eight floodlit tennis courts on the southern banks of the Lee, two squash courts, as well as a gymnasium, bar and lounge overlooking the river, and boasts over 1,000 members across all age groups from juniors to veterans—a far cry from its beginnings as an exclusive male-only sports club for members of Cork’s social elite.

The club was founded in 1899 when boating at Sunday’s Well was a very popular ‘high society’ pastime.

Following a successful regatta and water carnival held in July of that year, several members of the regatta, described as a group of “notable legal professionals and merchant princes”, some of whom lived on the hills of Sunday’s Well where gardens sweep down to the river, founded the club opposite their homes, at its present location on the Mardyke, nestled between Fitzgerald’s Park and Cork Cricket Club.

The club loaned its grounds to the Cork International Exhibition of 1902 and its present clubhouse was built by the exhibition committee to host visiting dignitaries including King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra.

The club hosted an international tennis tournament during the exhibition, which was won by Mr AW Gore, the 1901 Wimbledon champion. He won a challenge cup and took home £10 in prize money.

But when the exhibition concluded in 1903, a legal dispute arose between the club and the exhibition organisers over the fee to be paid by the club for the new structure that had been built on their land.

Because the structure was not built to the agreed specifications, the club refused to pay and subsequently won its case in court. 

Soon afterwards, members set about expanding the clubhouse to incorporate a pavilion, dressing rooms and a snooker room, which was subsequently designed by Robert Walker Junior.

This pavilion is still there today, along with its distinctive weather vane and clock at the apex of the original structure.

In the early years, the club was a male-members-only institution, largely protestant and Unionist, and it hosted lawn tennis on its five manicured grass courts, widely regarded at the time as the best in the country, as well as boating, crown bowls, card playing, billiards, fishing and cricket.

It also hosted many regattas which grew to become some of the city’s most notable and desirable social events. The events were complemented by musical programmes and promenades performed by British army bands in neighbouring Fitzgerald’s Park.

The steward’s house was built on the club land in 1909 and its use was part of the remuneration package of all club stewards from 1914 right up to 2019. For many decades, it was also used as the ladies changing rooms.

During the Civil War, one of the club’s officers, father of six, WL Cooke, who ran a cycle shop and plumbers business on Grand Parade and Tuckey St, was ambushed on his doorstep on the Old Blackrock Road and shot dead by a gang of up to six anti-treaty sympathisers.

During the First World War and reflecting the club’s membership, many events were held in the club to help those members who fought in the Great War. A roll of honour of these members exists in the clubhouse today.

The club hosted its first international tennis match in 1954 between Ireland and Wales, a time when whiskey and gin were available in the club bar at four pence per glass, beer and stout cost one penny per bottle and cigarettes were two pence per pack.

At that time, it was usual for people to retire from outdoor sporting activities in their 30s but today, the club’s oldest playing member is 83.

The club minutes record that full lady membership first became an issue for the club officers in 1901, but it took until 1994 before the club voted to allow full lady membership, ending an era of associate membership only for women and opening the way for membership of club committees and election as club officers.

Mary Jane Kenefick was elected the club’s first lady captain in 1997 but it would take until 2014 before the club elected its first female chairman, Valerie Noonan.

The minutes also show how things in the club’s cardroom often became heated, with members and stewards frequently being verbally abused and, on occasion, accompanied by “the outbreak of fisticuffs”.

In 1996 the club merged with the historic 1828-founded gentlemen’s club, the Cork and County Club (CCC), which had “facilities for the members for playing cards, billiards, reading newspapers, dining and taking refreshments”.

The remaining 38 members of the CCC at the time became members of Sunday’s Well on completion of the merger, and the CCC initials are represented in the Sunday’s Well crest, and the current bar in the clubhouse was relocated from the CCC premises on the South Mall.

Disaster struck in 2009 when the massive flood that swamped Cork City covered the entire club grounds with water levels which reached the top of their tennis nets. But club members responded to the challenge and helped refurbish the club which has evolved over the years so that tennis, squash and snooker form the main sports, with bridge, golf, cycling and cricket are also available to members.

Among the mix of sporting and social events planned for next year’s celebrations are a culture night event to discuss and explore the origins of the club, its members, and its links to the history of Cork City, an international women’s day event to celebrate the role of women in sport and tennis.

It will host a wooden tennis racquet event and a vintage tennis day in July where members will recreate the scenes and dress of the early years of tennis, dressing in period costume to play tennis on the lawns of Sunday’s Well accompanied by afternoon tea and boating on the river.

The club will open its doors for Culture Night 2024, to host lectures by local historian Dr Tom Spalding on the history of the Mardyke, and its importance in the development of the city’s economy.

The club will also host a performance as part of the Cork Choral Festival in April and a wheelchair tennis tournament in August.

As well as hosting several important tennis and squash events during the year, including the flagship Munster senior, junior and masters’ events, the club will also host the Irish Senior Interprovincial Championships.

The celebrations will peak in October with a gala black-tie ball.

You can buy a copy of the club’s 2024 calendar online at www.sundayswell.ie.