John Joseph Rea (6 April 1921 – 20 October 2013), better known as Jackie Rea was a Northern Irish snooker player. He turned professional in 1947 and was the leading Irish snooker player until the emergence of Alex Higgins and held the Irish Professional Championship almost continuously from 1952 to 1972.

Rea reached the semi-final of the 1952 World Professional Match-play Championship, losing to Fred Davis. At the 1957 World Championships he lost to John Pulman in the final despite being ahead in the early stages. With interest in professional snooker in decline, he was one of four entries for the 1957 tournament.

He won the 1954/1955 News of the World Snooker Tournament, winning all his eight matches and taking the first prize of £500. He continued playing professional snooker until 1990. He was placed 48th in the 1983–84 snooker world rankings, which was the highest ranking he attained after rankings were introduced in 1976. Outside of competition, he was known for his entertaining exhibition matches.

Rea was born on 6 April 1921, in Dungannon, County Tyrone, and was the only child of Catherine and greyhound track manager Thomas. He began playing snooker at the age of 9 in the billiards room of the pub his father managed in Dungannon, but usually then played in boys' clubs until he was 21, as people under that age were not allowed in public bars. He left school aged 14 and became an apprentice boilermaker. When World War II started, he joined the Navy, where he was promoted to Chief petty officer and was a communications instructor. He was demobbed in 1946, and at the time had not played snooker for over five years.

Rea was runner-up to Jack McNally in the 1946 Northern Ireland Amateur Championship, and defeated Jack Bates to win the title in 1947. He also won the All-Ireland championship in 1947 by defeating C. Downey and turned professional directly afterwards. He moved to England and got a job as a billiard marker at the East India Club in St James's Square. He played Joe Davis in an exhibition match, and Davis encouraged him to compete professionally in England.

In 1952, Bates defeated Rea in a challenge for the Irish Professional title. Bates moved to Scotland that year, and was granted eligibility for the Scottish Professional Championship from 1953. In late 1952, Rea was declared as the Irish Professional Champion. He retained the title in a December 1956 match where he was challenged by Bates, who at the time was the Scottish champion.

Rea first appeared in the World Championship in 1949, when he lost 18–17 to Conrad Stanbury in the second qualifying round. He didn't enter again until 1952, when he eliminated Jim Lees and Kingsley Kennerley before losing 23–38 to Fred Davis in the semi-final. He lost in his first match to John Pulman in the 1953 championship and again in the 1954 championship. The players were level at 24 frames each at the start of the final day of their match in 1954, then Rea won four of the six frames on the final afternoon before Pulman took five of the first six frames in the evening to win 31–29. He lost to Pulman again in 1956, separated by a loss to Fred Davis in a 1955 semi-final after defeating Harry Stokes. By 1957 interest in snooker was ebbing and there just four entries for the World Title. Rea defeated Kennerley 25–12 in the semi-final. He faced Pulman in the best-of-73 frames final, and finished the first day of the match 8–5 ahead. At the end of day two, he led 14–12 in front. Rea increased his advantage to four frames at 18–14 after the third morning session, but Pulman won five of the evening's seven frames, including the last four of the day, to move to one frame behind at 19–20. Pulman took five of the seven frames played on day four and was 24–22 up at the close. Pulman extended his lead to 32–27 on day five. On the concluding day, Pulman won five of the seven frames in the afternoon session to take a winning lead of 37–29. Rea claimed five of the seven frames in the evening session to give a final score of 39–34 to Pulman.

Rea won the qualifying tournament, which included five players, for the 1952/53 News of the World Tournament. In the main event, he finished as runner up. With a variety of starts, Rea won 5 of his 8 matches with a frames tally of 173 won to 123 lost. Rea received a cheque for £300. Rea won the 1954/55 by winning all his eight matches, with a tally of 174 frames won and 122 lost. Only Joe Davis, during the 1953 event, had previously won all of their eight matches. Rea's win earnt him a cheque for £500 and allowed his share of the gate at the Leicester Square Hall venue to rise from 15% to 20%. A variation of snooker called snooker plus which had two additional colours, orange (8 points) and purple (10 points) was devised by Joe Davis and first played at the 1959 News of the World Snooker Plus Tournament. Rea achieved the highest ever break at snooker plus, 156.