Looking back to era of the dinner dance in Mayo in the 1960s

By Tom Gillespie

DURING the 1960s dinner dances were all the rage right across Ireland. In Castlebar, Paddy and Mary Jennings’ Travellers Friend Hotel (TF), Tom and Luke McHugh’s Welcome Inn Hotel and Una Lee’s Breaffy House Hotel were key locations for these functions.

GAA clubs topped the dinner dance league, often with three functions for different clubs on the one night.

September to December were the most popular times of year as the farming community, who were and are the backbone of the GAA organisation, had completed their harvesting chores.

One of the largest and most prestigious was the annual Hunt Ball, which in 1966 was held in the Royal Ballroom of the Travellers Friend Hotel.

Back then I was a weekend waiter at the hotel. Our uniform was a white jacket, dicky-bow and black trousers. That Hunt Ball was a complete sell-out and when the guests were seated a young pony was proudly led through the hall.

Heuston Wells and The Premier Aces, with a young trumpeter, Johnny Carroll, provided the music that night.

Great planning went into the catering aspect of the function as the main kitchen was upstairs in the main hotel.

Dozens of teenagers, male and female, were taken on as waiters for the night.

On each side of the main stage in the ballroom were dressing rooms, one of which was equipped with a large soup cauldron from where the starter course was served.

The trick was not to let the piping hot soup touch your thumbs while carrying it to the guests.

Patrons will remember the snack bar in the ballroom. This was used to gather the used plates which the young waiters were brought in the next day to wash, dry and store away.

The main course of turkey and ham was ferried down from the main kitchen and dished out to the hungry guests. Again, you had to be careful not to burn your fingers on the red hot plates, which in turn were stacked in the snack bar, to be cleaned the next day.

The only other organisation to pack the Royal Ballroom for a dinner dance was the Irish Farmers Association (IFA), which was organised by Roy O’Brien.

Many of these functions in the three Castlebar hotels were dress dances, with black dress suits and flowing gowns.

While I served at several of these black-tie functions in the TF, the first I actually attended was the Press Ball of November 1968. This rotated for many years between the TF and Breaffy House Hotel.

The guest of honour at the 1968 Press Ball was then Taoiseach Jack Lynch. One of the highlights of the night was the crowning of a ‘Miss Print’, something that would be very much frowned on today.

The Press Ball attracted journalists and their partners from all over Mayo and Galway and was organised by the West of Ireland branch, National Union of Journalists. In 1990 I organised the last Press Ball to be held in Mayo, in Breaffy House Hotel. Like all the other dinner dances, that era came to an end.

One of the features of the dinner dance period was the glut of spot prizes that were handed out each night. This task was left to the band, usually Brose Walsh or Tony Chambers. There was always a snag to gaining the prize as Brose or Tony would offer the price to the first man to the stage with a pair of nylons over his arm - you simple lifted up your partner and carried her to the stage. Another was the first man to the stage with his coat on inside out.

Party hats made an appearance at these functions around Christmas and the new year.

Weeks of hard work went into organising a dinner dance. The venue had to be booked and an exemption sought through the courts. The band had to be booked, tickets had to be printed and sold and spot prizes gathered. While turkey and ham was the usual menu, occasionally beef would be offered.

Bernie Gillespie and John McHale of The Connaught Telegraph organised the Press Ball in Castlebar for many years.

The 1964 Press Ball was held in the TF where the Clancy Brothers were guests of honour.

Paddy, Tom and Liam Clancy (pictured), prior to teaming up with Tommy Makem, were a huge act during the 1960s. They were famed for their Aran sweaters and are widely credited with popularising Irish traditional music in the United States.

The Carrick-on-Suir, Co. Tipperary, brothers had such hits as ‘Brennan on the Moor’, ‘Jug of Punch’, ‘Reilly's Daughter’, ‘Finnegan's Wake', ‘Haul Away Joe’, and ‘Roddy McCorley’.

I was still in college in 1964 and didn’t join The Connaught Telegraph until August 1, 1968. A few years later Kevin Bourke of the Rehabilitation Institute (later Mayo Rehab) organised fundraising concerts for the organisation and I helped out with publicity.

These concerts were always a sell-out in the Royal Ballroom. I recall Makem and Clancy, Val Doonigan, Hal Roach, Ronnie Drew and the Dubliners, and Joseph Locke.

These concerts helped to fund the fine organisation that Mayo Rehab has since grown into.