A NEW card club set up by young Knocklyon boy is attracting attention from the makers of the massively popular Yu-Gi-Oh and Pokemon games.
Broghan McClean (12), who loves playing with and trading both sets of cards, knew there must be other kids in the area who also shared his interest.
And so with the help of his mum, Deirdre, he set up the Kids Cards Club last May.
Meeting every Friday evening at the Firhouse Community Centre from 3.30pm to 5pm, the club has gone from strength to strength.
Now there are members coming from as far as Blackrock and Tallaght to battle, duel and trade cards.
It has become so successful that it is registered with the card manufacturers and has official club status, meaning free mechandise for members.
Deirdre said: “Not all kids are sporty, yet it’s important that they still get a chance to socialise.
“When Broghan got into collecting the cards, we figured there had to be other kids with the same shared interest and so we took a chance and ran the club for the month of May.
“And since then, it has just gone from strength to strength.
“We have kids from all over the county travelling to get involved. Mums report that it is especially important for kids who maybe don’t always find it easy to mix socially.
“Because everyone has the same interest, instead of being shy, within two minutes the kids are comparing decks and trading with each other and battling and duelling.
“We even ran a summer and Halloween camp and hope to run a camp during the Christmas holidays too.
“Former players have donated YuGiOh cards so everyone gets free cards.”
“We keep the cost to a minimum so that everyone who loves trading cards can come along,” Deirdre added.
“And we know there are kids who can’t make the Friday evening club so we are kicking off Saturday morning classes from January.
“We have even been contacted by mums from other parts of the country who have seen our Facebook page and want to set up something similar in their own area and we are delighted to give them a hand to do that.”
Broghan said: “It’s been amazing so far. I remember we started out as this tiny, unknown club with like, 200-so views on our Facebook and seven lads in the tiny kitchen of our community centre, playing card games.
“I had absolutely no idea that there were so many people playing card games as a hobby in our area.
“Now, Pokémon are looking into giving us official Pokémon TCG League promos, as well as permission to hold Pokémon League tourneys at our club.”
For more information, email kidscardsclub@gmail.com