By Elliott West
Introduction
Sean McMahon was an amateur snooker champion who literally rubbed shoulders with many of the snooker greats during his long and illustrious career as a player and a referee. Hailing from Belfast, Sean discovered snooker at an early age with a realisation for his talent when he visited the National Club in Berry Street, Belfast. Such was his passion for the game that his wife Deidre later remarked that if her husband wasn’t going to a snooker match, he was coming home from one.
Career
Sean McMahon won the Northern Ireland Amateur Championship in 1962 and was runner-up in 1975 and such was his wealth of snooker skills that many a Christmas dinner was supplied with it, including one Christmas when he bought home a turkey after winning a local competition. He can also be credited for beating the then world amateur champion Gary Owen in an exhibition match in 1966 and ten years later was one of 16 selected amateur players to play at the Embassy Invitational Tournament in Manchester.
In his match, Sean was drawn against John Virgo and subsequently lost but it was an experience that McMahon revelled in and was absolutely thrilled to have the opportunity to play snooker against such a high calibre player.
Life as a Referee
In later life, the Northern Irishman qualified as a snooker referee and as my featured photograph from his personal scrapbook shows. A picture that shows Sean with Alex Higgins, Dennis Taylor, Graham Miles and Patsy Fagan as he tosses the coin at the start of a charity match at Queen’s University.
His wife Deirdre was so proud of him, especially the white gloves that her husband wore for matches. She used to boast to people that they were from Brown’s of Sandy Row, a shop that sold regalia to Orange Order members. His wife was once asked what lodge Sean was a member of and quick as a flash she replied “West Belfast”.
Life outside Snooker
Born in 1927 in North Queen Street, Belfast, Sean McMahon spent most of his early childhood living with his grandmother, Mary Carbery in Plevna Street in the Lower Falls due to his mother working away in a mill. He would later move with his family to Beechmount Crescent where they bought a house.
Sean was an only child until the age of seventeen when his sister Mary was born and went on to be educated at St Joseph’s in Slate Street, a school where four of his eleven great-grandchildren would later be educated. He would go on to meet and marry his soulmate, Deidre McMahon at the Orchid Dancehall, marrying in 1953.
Like so many wedded couples of the time, Sean and his wife had a large family, producing seven children, Maria, Deidre, Eamonn, Sean, Mannix, Seamus and Kevin. A proud father, Sean never tired of telling his children how much he loved them and how proud he was of all of them.
McMahon was a grafter and worked hard all of his life, working initially at his father Edward’s rag store on Millfield and later in the early 1960s for the Imperial Tobacco Company on Castlereagh Road. A man who was loved by many and a gentle soul who sadly passed away on November 12th, 2017, just before his ninetieth birthday. Someone who left a tremendous legacy with snooker forming a large part of it.
