We got talking about the games we used to play as children on the Early Breakfast and I discovered that what we called 52 Bonkers was called Tip The Can in Dublin, 4040 in the Midlands and Block in Donegal.
Same rules applied; the one poor unfortunate chosen to be “on” was tasked with guarding the “can” (bin, gate pillar, jumper etc) while everyone else legged it off to hide. If you got back to “home” without being caught, you were brilliant.
Does anyone remember Queenie Eye O?
Queenie Eye Oh, who has the ball? Is she big or is she small? See I haven’t got it? See I haven’t got it? Queenie Eye Oh, who has the ball? (and a tennis ball would be hidden behind someone’s back.
Picking teams was the best part. We’d all stick our foot in a circle and someone would say ink ank under the bank ink ank out – thus eliminating one person and so on until one person was left to be “on”. There was a way to manipulate that though if you thought quickly and had a bit of a maths brain...I didn’t. I was always on.
Red Rover – where players formed two lines, linking or holding hands and facing each other, with one team calling a member of the other team “over”. Red Rover Red Rover, we call Bono over...Bono would then have to burst through one of the links (scoping out the weakest in the herd). If he managed to break the link, he got to go back to his own team, AND take a member of their team. If they blocked him, he had to join their team.
Welcome to the late 80s and early 90s - they just don't make them like that any more. Scroll down and see if you remember any of these games? 
- Paula we loved playing Kiss Chase. Wouldn’t get away with it anymore!
- “Hey Paula, Rounders is still going strong! My 12 year old son is in the All-Ireland final Saturday 2 weeks! Fingers crossed!”
- “Hi Paula. World Cup doubles was always the game for us. Teams of 2 all compete in one giant game of soccer. My favourite part was dishing out numbers at the start and then rigging the draw!” - Barry in Cork
- “Paula, every time there was a World Cup, we would have a soccer tournament in the neighbourhood. It was brilliant, the parents refereed and cooked on a BBQ – TK red lemonade for us kids and a few beers for the adults. 30 years later you’d never see that during a World Cup now!”
- “That’s funny you should say about the World Cup making everyone play soccer, when Wimbledon was on every year without fail, we’d dust off the tennis rackets and bang the ball off the side of the house for weeks pretending we were in Wimbledon, complete with sound effects!”
- “Paula, we played 5 in bates! It's basically heads and volleys and if ya get to score 5 goals, the keeper gets a hiding!” - Dave
- “Stuck in the Mud involved one person being “on” and chasing the rest of the group. When one person was caught they were forced to stand with their arms outstretched until one of their free brethren set them loose by crawling through their legs. Imagine adults doing that now?!”
- “Paula, ever play Manhunt? It was like Tip The Can, only violent. A witch hunt, followed by punches. After you played once or twice with the big kids, you usually came up with any excuse not to play!”
- “Blind Man’s Buff. Catching others while blindfolded. Realistically it was a game played running straight into someone’s head and therefore rattling your teeth!”
- “Paula all this talk is making me sweat remembering asking, Oh can I play? In case you got the emm don’t know it’s not my game it’s John’s, ask him!”
- “Paula - we played sick, dying ,dead and buried. Someone had a tennis ball and every time you were hit you lost a life until you were buried!”
- “Hi Paula, our game of choice was Pom-Pom. It was like hide and seek but with a few different rules. If you hid and got back to the starting point without the seeker spotting you then you freed everyone including those already caught by shouting Pom-Pom I free all. Great days!” - Mick in Laois
- “Paula in my school they banned running around in the yard at lunchtime because of all the injuries. They introduced skipping ropes to keep us occupied instead. Then some of us figured out that skipping ropes made deadly whips, especially after dipping them in a puddle. Before long, lads were getting lashed out of it left right and centre!”
- “Hi Paula, it's that time of the year again...Dublin Horse Show! Used to play Showjumping out in the back garden. Fences were barrels or chairs; adorned with sods of turf and brush handles, which fell with the slightest touch. The water feature was a couple of fertiliser bags. The wall was made of turf! Ah the memories, lol!” - Mick Duffy
- “Hey Paula, we used to play football in the yard with a radion ball. The ones out of the washing machine!” - Marc
- 'Hi Paula. During school lunch, a group of people would go into the long grass and tie some of it together is different places. Then loads of us would go to one side of the field and run to the other side. Most people would trip in the grass that was tied together!” - Richard Slevin
- “Hi Paula I remember playing catch on runner blades up and down a Tarmac basketball court. We used to gather up some speed!” - Steven Laois
- Paula about 60 of us lads would source a soccer ball and head to a field and commence a hybrid game of gaelic football/rugby/basketball/UFC. The ball would be down the far end and you’d look around and there’d be lads in headlocks, lads getting swung around, lads getting pretty much bet around the place!”
- “Hi Paula. We used to have apple wars. We'd raid an orchard of crab apples. Split into 2 teams. And there'd be a riot until all the apples were lost or broken. Some minor injuries were sustained!”
- “We played taxi Paula, people who had bikes had to let someone on the back or the crossbar and bring them to the neighbour’s ‘supermarket’ or ‘florist’...I always pretended my bike had a flat. It was way better fun being the customer!”
- “So glad the children on our road still play all these games. Love watching them play tip the can as they always hide in the same place, so funny!”
- “Howya Paula! We used to play Stingy Ring or Red Arse which was like heads and volleys but you get 8 lives. The keeper had to catch the ball, or it go wide. Who ever kicked it is in nets and the last one in for last goal gets the ball kicked at them. Those were the days lol!”
