&sq=&lang=&file=File:Sp%C3%A9ireata_an_m%C3%A1mh.jpg) A hand of five cards from an Irish deck | |
| Origin | Ireland |
|---|---|
| Type | Trick-taking |
| Players | 3–8 |
| Skills | Tactics & Strategy |
| Cards | 52 |
| Deck | French |
| Play | Clockwise |
| Playing time | 25 min. |
| Chance | Medium |
| Related games | |
| Forty-five | |
Twenty-five is the Irish national card game, which also underlies the Canadian game of Forty-fives. Charles Cotton describes its ancestor in 1674 as "Five Cards", and gives the nickname five fingers to the Five of Trumps extracted from the fact that the Irish word cúig means both 'five' and 'trick'.[1] It is supposed to be of great antiquity, and widely believed to have originated in Ireland, although "its venerable ancestor", Maw,[2] of which James I of England was very fond, is a Scottish game.[3]
- ^ David Parlett, Oxford Dictionary of Card Games, p. 284, Oxford University Press (1996), ISBN 0-19-869173-4
- ^ Maw and Spoil Five rules
- ^ Parlett, David (1991). A History of Card Games, Oxford: OUP. pp. 54, 55 and 188