How Dreamland swept Athy off its feet

IN THE years prior to the opening of Dreamland Ballroom, dancing for Athy folk was confined to the occasional outings in the ballroom of the Town Hall or the seldom used hall attached to the Social Club in St John’s Lane.

I remember in the early years of Aontas Ogra enjoying the happy intermingling of youthful boys and girls on Sunday afternoons in the Town Hall for Irish dancing.

These were enjoyable afternoons as we teenagers approached adulthood and improved our social skills in meeting the opposite sex.

It was a fun time which unfortunately did not last long enough and our dancing skills were less than perfect when Dreamland Ballroom opened on Friday 14 July 1961.

I had started work in Kildare County Council the previous January and I still remember my mother crying at the doorway of No. 5 Offaly Street as she wished me farewell on the Sunday evening before my first working day.

I stayed for a few weeks with my brother Jack and his wife Frances in Ballymore Eustace. Jack also worked in the county council offices in Naas and for a few weeks I was his passenger as he drove to the Naas offices.

Within a short while I got digs in Naas and became acquainted with the weekly dances in Lawlor’s ballroom which usually ended at 3am.

The opening of Dreamland Ballroom was eagerly anticipated far and wide and I can remember travelling with the late Carmel Fitzpatrick and three other girls from the county council offices to Athy the evening of 14 July.

The admission fee was ten shillings whereas the usual admission fee in Lawlors and elsewhere was 7/6.

We didn’t mind the extra charge given that the London Orchestra, led by Victor Sylvester Junior, was playing in Athy that night, supported by the local Sorrento Dance Band.

Special buses ran from Naas, Newbridge, Kildare, Monasterevin and Portarlington for that first dance in Dreamland at a time when cars were few and bicycles were the common form of male, but not usually female, transport.

I remember we arrived in Athy just after the dance hall was opened for the first time. There was a big queue of would-be dancers who like ourselves were eager to trip the light fantastic in Athy’s latest attraction. The Sorrento Dance Band led by Paddens Murphy, originally from Offaly St., played the opening hours and on stage with Paddens were Brendan Murphy, Andy Murphy, Mick McFadden, Denis Prendergast, Thomas Quinlivan, Tom Farrell, John Murphy and another Andy Murphy.

Ballroom dancing in those days was a very fraught type of leisurely enjoyment, with the girls on one side of the ballroom and the boys in separate lanes on the opposite side. As soon as a dance was called there was a gradual sweep from the male side approaching the standing or sitting females asking for a dance.

As the Sorrento Dance Band played its last tune, the stage on which they were positioned revolved and they disappeared, while the Victor Sylvester Orchestra appeared in front of us. This was something we had never seen before and indeed it was the first and only time the revolving stage was used in Dreamland.

The fact that such a world-famous orchestra, or perhaps band might be a more accurate description of the Sylvester composition, was in Athy was a time of great excitement. We danced and applauded and enjoyed what was a memorable night in the social history of Athy.

The following Sunday the Royal Showband was playing with the admission price reduced to 7/6 and on the next Sunday evening the great Clipper Carlton were in Dreamland. Both show bands were leaders of the Irish showband scene and their early arrival in Dreamland, Athy was a clear message that Dreamland was to be an important dance venue.

While working in Naas I thumbed home every weekend and attended Dreamland Ballroom Sunday night.

Dreamland provided the boys and girls of Athy and the surrounding towns for the very first time a social venue where they could meet every Sunday night.

It was a powerful draw and one which I remember with enormous pleasure. I had a number of girlfriends in my pre Dreamland days and in its early years I enjoyed many a Sunday night in Dreamland with another girlfriend from Dunlavin, who sadly passed away some years ago. That romance was ended before I ended up in early July 1966 in Seapoint Ballroom, Salthill.

There I met the girl whom I married 58 years ago. I was in Galway to get some work experience with the County Development team and arriving on the Bank Holiday Monday I went to a dance in Seapoint the next evening.

There I spied a corduroy suited girl on the balcony overlooking the dancefloor. Apparently she had not intended to go to Seapoint but during a walk on Salthill prom with a friend who on seeing another friend going to the dance decided to follow her.

Maybe I had learned from my time in Dreamland for when she came down from the balcony I immediately caught her attention and we danced.

I met her every evening that week and on the Friday I proposed to her. We met 60 years ago last week and married two years later.

Was it the experience of dancing and meeting girls in Dreamland which gave me the courage to propose to a girl I first met three days previously? I think it was. So well done Dreamland!