History

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Gosling Games has been in production for 22 years now; but the story goes back a long way before that. Mary grew up in West Cork, where, as a young adult, she ran a tea room for the summer visitors near her family home, going over to London to work in the winter months. It was there she met Graham. They fell in love, got married and then made the big decision to move back to Ireland to bring up their family.

While bringing up their family in Ireland, Graham and Mary ran a guest house where they welcomed visitors from all over the world. One of the best parts was when the guests in the evening told them the amusing things that had happened on their journey that day and asked for help in planning the next day's itinerary. Out of that grew their first game, 'Discovering Ireland'. Launched in October 1987, it became the best-selling board game in Ireland in the six weeks prior to Christmas and is still one of the top sellers today.

Fired with enthusiasm, the Goslings decided to explore this new field further. Success followed success. The following year 'Discovering London was launched. Next came 'Discovering Europe', 'Globetrotting', 'Play the Game', 'Blackboard Jungle', 'Antics' and for the Millenium, 'The Euro Game' a unique game enabling players to become accustomed to the new Euro currency.
	During Summer 2005 they designed a set of Irish Wildlife Playing Cards with images by award winning photographer Mike Brown. Following the success of these nature cards in Spring 2006 they launched a set of Irish Sealife Playing Cards. Today Gosling Games is a thriving business, selling all over the world from its base in Clonakilty, West Cork.

An active mind is a happy mind, they believe. 'We always try to invent games that will make participants think or learn something as well as have fun,' says Mary. 'We test every idea on our own family and friends first. Believe me, if there's anything wrong with the prototype of a new game, we hear about it from the gang when they are all clustered around the kitchen table down here trying it out!Gosling Games is a family-based business, which provides good old-fashioned entertainment of the kind you thought you couldn't find any more