Celebrating 50 years of Cavan ‘Sports World’

Róisín McManus

Stepping into Sports World in Cavan Town, you are surrounded by fishing rods, trophies and dart boards. The walls are covered with fishing tackle and there are tens of pen knives at the counter.

In the few minutes this reporter is waiting to speak to proprietor Brian Webber, one customer has gotten a key cut, two others have bought a new fishing rod and another is having a look around.

“You must be a fishing woman,” Brian says.

“You’re very patient.”

2026 marks Brian’s 50th year in business. The 79 year old Bristolian has operated out of his current premises on Townhall Street for the past 26 years, after moving from two separate premises in Cavan Town in years past.

He moved to Cavan in his mid twenties with his wife Margaret, who is from Cavan Town. She grew up in Mons Terrace, where members of the British army were historically housed, including her family.

Margaret had emigrated to live with her aunt in Bath as a young woman, and the two first met while working for Cadbury in its Keynsham factory near Bristol.

Cadbury’s, Brian says, was a fantastic place to work. The Cadbury family were Quakers, and as such, the company looked after their workers very well.

Brian met Margaret while bringing a number of fellow employees home from the social club. With some encouragement from a friend, one night, he plucked up the courage to ask her out.

“What do you do on a Sunday?” he remembers asking her, to which she replied: “I go to Church.”

Not quite the response he was expecting, the two agreed to meet after church. They wed in Keynesham soon after, and have now been married for 56 years. They have three daughters Fiona, Roisín and Alison. Fiona and Roisín have both sadly passed away.

Brian later took up a job as a medical rep. He had a “fantastic car” and stayed in the “best hotels” but he was “never home”.

Having been here only once, it was Brian’s idea to move back to Ireland. Margaret, on the other hand, was more hesitant.

The newly married couple moved back to 1970s Ireland during a period of mass emigration and the Troubles in "full flow". They settled at first in Belturbet before moving to Cavan Town.

“What in the hell have I done?” Brian remembers thinking as he looked out the window of their new home.

Having played various sports all his life, Brian got to know people around Cavan through sport. He played with the Cavan Town Badminton Club, and for a time with Monaghan United, with the late former soccer manager Sean McCaffrey, who helped establish the team in 1979, before joining the newly developed Cavan Town team.

One day, someone Brian played badminton with asked him if he wanted a job as they had heard of three golfers who were opening a sports shop.

By the time Brian joined, two of the three had already left, and he went into partnership with the late Val Cassidy from Derrylin, the former principal of St Aidan’s High School in Derrylin. They had their first meeting in the Seven Horseshoes.

Around four years later, Val left the shop. Since then, Brian has operated the business on his own. Over the years, he has employed around 12 people but he currently works alone with some occasional help from Alison’s husband Adrian.

The business originally began as a sportswear supplier called 'Magna Sports', where he sold athletic clothing from brands such as Nike, Adidas and Puma, and it has since grown into 'Sports World', a supplier of fishing equipment, hunting equipment and firearms.

Brian still has his first shop book, which documented their weekly transactions. The first (for week ending November 6, 1976) shows takings of £227.

Webber School of Dancing

Meanwhile, Margaret, a dancer all her life, set up her own Irish dancing school; the Webber School of Dancing, which Alison now runs. Alison’s daughter Laura is also an Irish dancer.

This time of year, Brian finds there is a “massive interest” in fishing but in recent years he finds there have been less French, German and English fishermen coming here. He points to increases in the price of accommodation and strict regulations around the killing of pike that may have impacted the numbers of angling tourists.

“People don’t realise what they have on their doorstep,” Brian believes, as Cavan, he feels, has so much to offer, and that people should consider this before travelling abroad. He still returns to Bristol “very often” as it is only a 40 minute flight from Dublin.

Brian and Margaret have a mobile home in Bundoran, where Margaret spends much of the summer. The couple have camped all around Ireland, particularly the west of the country. They have often gone to Miltown Malbay in Clare during the week of the Willie Clancy Summer School.

Through dancing there, Margaret met the late Céline Tubridy, an accomplished step dancer and the wife of founding member of The Chieftains’ Michael Tubridy. Céline introduced Margaret and Brian to her husband, and the two couples became friends. Michael and Céline visited them in Cavan and wrote to them each year.

Brian, who will turn 80 next year on July 4, 2027, operates Sports World six days a week, Monday to Saturday from 10am until 6pm.

With no intention of retiring yet, he thinks that missing people is what would “hit [him] most,” and despite working in retail being “hard” with long hours and rising costs, he has no regrets.

“I’ve met some great people,” Brian says of his 50 years in business.

“If I lived again, I would like to do this.”