Evelyn and I are 56 years married to-day. I remember asking " would you like to be buried with my people " while dancing . It worked - and we got married -don't know if it was a sin - I have not been punished ! John On Thursday 24 September 2015, Outlook Team via <beara@rootsweb.com> wrote: > > I'm not a sinner. I'm widowed, but at 87 nobody living wants to dance > with > me. (:-() > Dalton O'Sullivan San Francisco, CA > > -----Original Message----- > >From: Bill Gawne via > >Sent: Sep 23, 2015 2:14 PM > >To: Riobard O' Dwyer , beara@rootsweb.com <javascript:;> > >Subject: Re: [BEARA] Dance Halls. > > > >Hello Riobard, all, > > > >If dancing is a sin, I confess I'm a sinner. I'll be sinning later on > this > >evening, and again on Friday evening, and again Saturday. Nor will my > >sinning be only with one woman! I'll be sinning with a different woman > >every time the music starts. > > > >Thanks be to the merciful Lord who forgave our ancestors their sinful > ways, > >and watches over us all still. > > > >Bill Gawne > > > >On Wed, Sep 23, 2015 at 10:11 AM, Riobard O' Dwyer via > >wrote: > > > >> Recenty, I read an article in the paper from a Paula Vallely from > >> Keady. Co. Armagh, saying that she was researching about dance > halls > >> in rural Iraland during the 1930s, 1940s, and the 1950s. This is > the > >> answer I wrote her back: > >> Dear Paula, > >> My parents' dance hall in the (Ardgroom) Village was > >> opened circa Christmas 1936. The Priests here were very much > against > >> dancing at the time. One of them used ask people going to > Confession > >> if they were dancing in my parents' hall on the previous Sunday > night. > >> If they admitted it. they would not be given absolution by him, as > he > >> looked upon dancing as a mortal sin. Such rubbish !! Once, he > walked > >> into the centre of the dance floor., and spread out his hands as > if to > >> "clear" the hall of the "sinners". Many of the local people used be > >> walking up and down the village road outside the dance hall, > afraid of > >> their lives of the damnation of the Priest if they went in. I > >> remember, as a young lad of about 10., sitting on the 2nd set of > the > >> top left of the Church during Mass, and listening to my father and > >> mother being denounced from the Altar by the Priest for not closing > >> the dance at 10 p.m. on a Sunday night ----- dances used be held > early > >> here on a Sunday night. One time, my father held a dance to 12 > o'clock > >> on a Christmas night, and the Parish Priest went to court to stop > him. > >> It used cost 4 pence to go to the dances in those days; later, it > went > >> up to 6 pence; and, later again, to a shilling. The dances in the > hall > >> were the Set Dance (to Irish traditional music), the Waltz, the > >> 2-step, the Barn Dance, and the "Stack of Barley". The dance band > >> consisted of my father playing the "button-key" accordeon, and my > >> mother playing the fiddle/violin, and sometimes the concertina. > There > >> was no such thing as amplification. People kept up as near as > he/she > >> could to the stage. The men used stand on one side of the hall, and > >> the girls on the other side. During the dance, there used be what > was > >> called the Ladies' Choice ----- when a lady had the privilege of > going > >> across the dance floor and asking the man of her choice for a > dance. > >> Sometimes, the man of her choice would feel he was "fixed up" after > >> that, and would, later in the week, ask her out for a "date". The > >> girls wore ordinary-length dresses ----- not like the "up to their > >> ar__s" that some of them wear nowadays. Before their dance hall of > >> 1936, my father built a very small hall at the top of the village, > up > >> beside the nearby river, when my parents came back home from > America. > >> It was after the Civil War, and one night during a dance (I heard > it > >> said), when my father and mother were playing their music up on the > >> "stage", a row/fight started between two men in the middle of the > >> dance-floor ----- one belonging to Fianna Fail, and the other from > the > >> opposite party, Fine Gael. My father jumped down off the "stage", > >> knocked out the two of them with his fists; then jumped up on the > >> "stage", and continued playing for the dance. As the old people > used > >> say: "Them were the days" !! I hope that this will help you with > your > >> research. Best wishes from Riobard (=the Gaelic for Robert) > O'Dwyer. > >> > >> ------------------------------- > >> To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > >> BEARA-request@rootsweb.com <javascript:;> with the word > 'unsubscribe' without the > quotes > >> in the subject and the body of the message > >> > > > >------------------------------- > >To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > BEARA-request@rootsweb.com <javascript:;> with the word > 'unsubscribe' without the quotes > in the subject and the body of the message > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > BEARA-request@rootsweb.com <javascript:;> with the word 'unsubscribe' > without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message > -- Sent from Gmail Mobile