Irish Champions who played in England.

[John Clarke]

Back to the original question: could this be the chap? (But as he didn't win his first Irish championship till 1985, maybe not.)

[MJMcCready]

I don't think so because he mentions 'those who preceded them' in 1986. He's never mentioned this before anywhere, so I don't know who he is talking about.

[Tim Harding]

Mr. Kenworthy told me that O'Hanlon played in England many times. Unfortunately the columnist who made this claim is no longer with us, so I can't ask him who it was.

As Sean said, it might help if you tell us which is your club and league since you failed to provide that information.
If it is in the Manchester area, then the answer may be the candidate I propose below, not mentioned by anyone in this thread yet.

O'Hanlon certainly played some tournaments in England but I don't think he was a resident. He was originally from Portadown and moved to Dublin, joining Dublin Chess Club in 1928. So I doubt he is your man.

In 1972 I won two tournament games (first in Caerphilly and later in the Manchester Open) against an opponent listed as J. V. Innes-Reid who told me he had been Irish champion. At a rough guess he may have been in his fifties then.

I am pretty sure he was the John Reid who was Irish champion in 1961 and co-champion in 1962, and who had won the Irish correspondence championship twice in the 1950s. I don't know when he moved to England.

Sean's website says Reid played 13 times in the Irish (OTB) chess championship starting in 1951, the last time being 1963.

I recollect (but no source - sorry) somebody telling me that the name change followed a term of imprisonment, but if that's true I cannot say where or when or for what. Possibly a confusion with somebody else of a similar name.

[MJMcCready]

Mr. Kenworthy told me that O'Hanlon played in England many times. Unfortunately the columnist who made this claim is no longer with us, so I can't ask him who it was.

As Sean said, it might help if you tell us which is your club and league since you failed to provide that information.
If it is in the Manchester area, then the answer may be the candidate I propose below, not mentioned by anyone in this thread yet.

O'Hanlon certainly played some tournaments in England but I don't think he was a resident. He was originally from Portadown and moved to Dublin, joining Dublin Chess Club in 1928. So I doubt he is your man.

In 1972 I won two tournament games (first in Caerphilly and later in the Manchester Open) against an opponent listed as J. V. Innes-Reid who told me he had been Irish champion. At a rough guess he may have been in his fifties then.

I am pretty sure he was the John Reid who was Irish champion in 1961 and co-champion in 1962, and who had won the Irish correspondence championship twice in the 1950s. I don't know when he moved to England.

Sean's website says Reid played 13 times in the Irish (OTB) chess championship starting in 1951, the last time being 1963.

I recollect (but no source - sorry) somebody telling me that the name change followed a term of imprisonment, but if that's true I cannot say where or when or for what. Possibly a confusion with somebody else of a similar name.

Tim, info concerning the club, the league and the claim made by the columnist is already in the thread, however, it is Luton Bedfordshire. As mentioned, I know what the limitations of the columnist are and his understanding of chess in our league in Victorian times is dim indeed, so most likely its somewhere in the 20th century, most likely between the 40s and 70s. But since I have spent the best part of 10 years looking into our history and never encountered this before, coupled with the fact he has never mentioned this before, added to this our Irish champion has never been mentioned by anyone else ever, its rather tricky. But in 70/71 IM (at the time) Sergio Mariotti put in a cameo performance in our league for one season only and very few people know about that too. Perhaps this Irish champion only played for half a season or something. Patterson was based in Cambridge/London and from what I understand that was due to the nature of his work but he would appear in local reportage. I have everything post 67 on file and he is not showing anywhere. Unfortunately, my knowledge of chess in Ireland is so limited, I am guessing as to who it might be.

[MJMcCready]

My main concern is we did have a Welsh champion play for us and this is not mentioned in the column. Why would he leave that out when he knew the guy personally? Why put an Irish champion in but leave no mention of a Welsh champion given that his purpose was to refer to achievers from the past? I hope he hasn't got mixed up over Wales and Ireland, that would be rather embarrassing.

[David McAlister]

In 1972 I won two tournament games (first in Caerphilly and later in the Manchester Open) against an opponent listed as J. V. Innes-Reid who told me he had been Irish champion. At a rough guess he may have been in his fifties then.

I am pretty sure he was the John Reid who was Irish champion in 1961 and co-champion in 1962, and who had won the Irish correspondence championship twice in the 1950s. I don't know when he moved to England.

Sean's website says Reid played 13 times in the Irish (OTB) chess championship starting in 1951, the last time being 1963.

I recollect (but no source - sorry) somebody telling me that the name change followed a term of imprisonment, but if that's true I cannot say where or when or for what. Possibly a confusion with somebody else of a similar name.

Reid, who had been a Sergeant in the Garda Siochana, went into the car business, including running a driving school. He got into financial difficulties and illegally sold two cars that were subject to hire purchase agreements. He then left Ireland for England in October 1964 just before a complaint was made to the police. He started a driving school in Manchester and it was two years before he was located there and returned to Ireland. He was convicted in April 1967 after a trial in Limerick Circuit Court and sentenced to 18 months hard labour. [My sources for all this are various contemporary newspaper reports, particularly those in the Limerick Leader {edit - also plenty in the Cork Examiner, which I couldn't find earlier}]

From what Tim says, it looks like he returned to England, and perhaps Manchester in particular, after his release.

I haven't found anything that would suggest a connection to Luton.

[James Pratt]

My one claim to fame is being at school with David Kennedy. His father, Paddy, got 100% in the Irish Championship in about 1945 but played very little since that and having his life cut short in a car accident. PB Kennedy was of Cork and then York Universities which was where David and his mum still lived in 1972 when David introduced himself to me.

[Roger de Coverly]

In 1972 I won two tournament games (first in Caerphilly and later in the Manchester Open) against an opponent listed as J. V. Innes-Reid who told me he had been Irish champion. At a rough guess he may have been in his fifties then.

I played him at the Staffordshire Open in 1972 and then again at the Manchester Open in the summer of 1975.

[SeanCoffey]

Via the British Newspaper Archive, the Spalding Guardian, October 30, 1970 p. 27, gives results of the 5th (Spalding?) Congress (1st-3rd Kurajica, Gasic, Eley), and mentions "V. Innes-Reid (Manchester)" as winning a grading prize in the under 130 category (with 4/6).