Under dóbair in Cnósach Focal ó BB:

This obviously relates to the card game 25, which Wikipedia says is Ireland's national card game, also called Five Trumps. Under dóbair in Dinneen's dictionary, this is glossed as "my score is 25 and I was on the verge of making game" or something like that.

This is difficult to understand, particularly why Dinneen thought this was past tense. Surely it means "I've got 25 points and so am on the verge of winning". But surely if he had 25 points, he would have already won?

Does anyone know how to play card games? Cluiche a dhéanamh, glossed in Ó Dónaill, as "to make a game", is also hard to understand, because I don't play cards and have never heard this lingo. Does this just mean "to win a game"?

I'm thinking the meaning is: 25 points - and so I win.

Note fichead based counting (over is fiche and ar fhichid) is typical of card games and giving ages.

There's quite a lot of specialised vocabulary in card games and even phrases that look ungrammatical if you're not used to them. I'll come back to post more later.

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The dialect I use is Cork Irish.
Ar sgáth a chéile a mhairid na daoine, lag agus láidir, uasal is íseal

I'd never heard of 25 before as "Ireland's national card game". So this whole subject is a new one on me.