Moira & District Miners Welfare Club

With the increasing rent for the James Street premises in 1990, the Club moved to the Moira & District Miners' Welfare building in Bath Road Moira and for the first time in the history of the Group, members had access to a bar during the meetings.  Other social events were held including BBQs during the summer months. 

By now all computers in the Club were PCs. Visits to computer shows at Earls Court, Alexandra Palace and the NEC were organised with members returning loaded with components. A period of computer construction began. In 1991 a computer with a 486 - 33 MHz processor, 8 Mb RAM and a 100 Mb hard disk cost £1,760.   So "build your own" was all the rage, and this lead to a rapid increase in the knowledge and understanding of computer hardware.

The programme of talks continued on computer related subjects including Cobol, hard disk management, mainframe computers, programming and the Microsoft Office.   Visiting speakers, some from local companies, also gave talks and demonstrations on specialist software and computer peripherals.

During the ten years at the Miners' Welfare Building computer evolution had moved on rapidly and the cost of new PCs dropped to such an extent that home construction was no longer necessary to save money. However, other related technological subjects such as telecommunications and digital photography became, and continues to be, a constant source of interest and discussion. NEXT