Having to watch as the building your club was located in burn to the ground because the fire service was stretched to its absolute limits is something you'd expect to take place maybe at the turn of the 20th century, but 11th April 2003 is a date etched on the minds of the members of the Dundalk Commercial Club as they watched this very horror story unfold.
Thankfully there was no loss of life in the fire which gutted the premises in Earl Street that saw shops Mackenna Man, R.Q. O'Neill's and the Democrat Newspaper severely damaged as the blaze swept through. Having to wait for a hydraulic platform to arrive from Belfast to aid an already struggling crew, proved to be catastrophic where the buildings were concerned. The reason this occurred had started much earlier that evening when all fire tenders in the Louth area including both their hydraulic platforms were called to one of the biggest and most memorable fires over the last few decades, when the Church of the Immaculate Conception in Louth Village was destroyed by fire.