Hundreds of club members are celebrating after their social club secured its future for the next 10 years.
The Claret Club heard last Thursday night that it had got a 10 year lease following changes instigated by the church where it holds its meetings.
The Claret Club, which began as an Irish social club and has the full name of the St Claret Catholic Social Club, has been at the Immaculate Heart of Mary in Botwell Lane since the 1960s.
But it was forced to close on September 12 after a committee member consented to the church's orders to desolve it under its present standing and re-open under a lease agreement.
Church officers said they had no choice but to order the club to open under a lease agreement because, as a charity, the church was not allowed to run principally to serve alcohol, and also had to show it was separate to the club.
But a lease must be secured and paid for, and some feared for the club's future. The club provides a friendly environment for elderly people, many of them widowed, to socialise, and without it, members said a vital part of their lives would be lost forever.
The Claret Club's roots go back to the 1930s, when a lot of Irish people came to the Hayes area, but was only officially established in 1966. It had been closed for more than a month while the legal wrangle was sorted out.
Barney Riley, its vice-president, said: "We opened again on Friday night. It was busy but a bit of a shock, so we had to be quick to get everything up and running again.
"The club is open to everybody in the Hayes community. We need all the support of our members now to keep us running to pay our lease, which we didn't have before.
"It's not just an Irish club, it is for every-body - we don't discriminate against anyone." The only way we could get our club back was to get a lease and now we one for 10 years.
"We have 700 members but now we hope to push on and get even more. We have Sky Sports and a bar and a really nice atmosphere.
"We will be open seven days a week."
