![\"Dancers](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/5031815_3_articleinlinemobile_182850.jpg\" "\\"Dancers")
Dancers queue up for the special buses at Grand Parade, Cork, taking them to the Dixies at the Majorca Ballroom in Crosshaven in 1968.\u00a0<\/p>\nPaddy O\u2019Brien, that great founder of the over 60s talent contests, wrote in response to last week\u2019s pages extolling the great showband era.<\/p>\n
\u201cYour words on the band scene brought back many happy memories of those days to me. Every week I love reading your articles in Throwback Thursday,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Of course, we contacted Paddy instantly, demanding those self same happy memories, and he was more than willing to oblige.<\/p>\n
Paddy\u2019s recollections, though, have a rather different sound to them, since he favoured the old-time ballroom numbers and the c\u00e9il\u00ed sets, which were in fact continuing as lively as ever while The Royal or The Dixies were rocking the Arcadia.<\/p>\n
\u201cI went to work in Dublin in my young days, and that was where I got involved in the clubs and halls where Irish dances were held. Because I had the Irish, I became \u2018caller\u2019 for the different sets. I would shout out (in Irish of course!), The Walls Of Limerick, or The Siege Of Ennis, and then guide the couples through the movements. Advance, retire, go sideways, return, swing your partner\u2026 etc, etc. It was great fun and everybody loved it.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen I was moved back to Cork and I soon got involved in the dance scene here, but it was very different to what you were talking about last week, Jo, with the showband era.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe main place I did MC was the Gresham in Maylor Street, and I am sure many of your regular readers will remember that great place, where ballroom dancing and c\u00e9il\u00ed still held sway. It was packed every night there was a dance. Wednesday nights were traditionally \u2018nurses nights\u2019 and I can tell you that many a Garda met his future wife there! As I did myself!\u201d said Paddy.<\/p>\n
This should remind us all that there was a time when being able to dance \u2018properly\u2019 was considered a social necessity.<\/p>\n
Dancers queue up for the special buses at Grand Parade, Cork, taking them to the Dixies at the Majorca Ballroom in Crosshaven in 1968.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Young men and women in the 1930s and 40s would have gone to ballroom dancing classes to get a polish on the slow waltz or the lively foxtrot. (You can still get those skills incidentally, at places like the Viva Dance Studio run by Rona Coulter, always a feature of the Lord Mayor\u2019s Tea Dance each January : https:\/\/www.ballroomdancingcork.ie\/.)<\/p>\n
\u201cDances at the Gresham were held 8pm to 11pm and strictly controlled,\u201d recalls Paddy. \u201cThere wasn\u2019t a hope of somebody being allowed in \u2018with drink on him\u2019 and any kind of hanky panky was stopped immediately. I\u2019d have to call out any young man with roaming hands, or couples getting too close in a \u2018clinger\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s the way it was then. But we never had any trouble in the Gresham, and it was a great place for young people to meet and get to know each other. Not just the young ones either \u2013 you would often get older men coming in, up from the country, and hoping to meet someone friendly that they could talk to and get to know.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was understood was that if a young man invited a girl for a mineral at the counter downstairs, he was interested. If he bought her a KitKat as well, then her friends would say, \u2018Oh you\u2019ll be walked home anyway!\u2019 Another sure sign was the offer of \u2018the mug of soup\u2019. There was a late night shop on Parnell Place that sold hot soup to those leaving the dance hall at 11, and if a partner was especially attentive throughout the evening, her friends would comment archly: \u2018Oh, you\u2019ll be getting the mug of soup tonight, no doubt about it!\u2019<\/p>\n
\n \u201cIt was all innocent, but so happy and you\u2019d wish we had more of that around today.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
Paddy peals with laughter at one of his memories, which actually links right into the showband era. \u201cYou had the two going on side by side in Cork back then – us with the military two-step, the foxtrot and the waltz, and the Arcadia with the Hucklebuck, the Yenka, the Twist and whatever. Well, we were asked at the Gresham if we couldn\u2019t give just a bit of rock, say one number during an evening, and the manager said all right, we\u2019d try it.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo our backing band, at the chosen moment, swung into a hit song, and didn\u2019t the place go mad! Instead of moving decorously round the floor in couples, everybody started dancing in circles, changing partners, skipping and hopping here, there and everywhere! The manager came out to see what the noise was, and stared at the wild display in horror. \u2018We\u2019ll have to stop this,\u2019 he cried. \u2018Stop it right away! None of this jitterbugging!\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, I never laughed so much! One pop song and they forgot all their good behaviour!\u201d<\/p>\n
And what was it, I know you are frantic to learn, dear readers. What was the hit song that had them going mad altogether? Was it Rock Around The Clock? High School Confidential? No, it was quite another number.<\/p>\n
\n I\u2019m in love with the girl who lives in the house with the whitewashed gable, And every time she comes my way, my poor heart seems to say:\n <\/p>\n
\n I\u2019m in love with the girl who lives in the house with the whitewashed gable, And I won\u2019t rest until she marries me.\n <\/p>\n
Yes, it was sweet-voiced Joe Dolan and none other who shattered the peace and decorum of the Gresham, for the space of one number at least. Well, maybe Bill Haley or Jerry Lee Lewis would have been a bit much for those accustomed to the steady beat of the military two-step or the swoop of the waltz.<\/p>\n
Remember that scene in Back To The Future when Marty plays at the school dance for his parents-to-be? He goes wild and lunges across the stage playing crashing guitar chords, skidding along the boards on his knees while the young couples stand and stare in consternation? And another band member rushes to the phone to tell his cousin, Chuck Berry, that he thinks he\u2019s found the new music Chuck was searching for? Must have been a bit like that.<\/p>\n
Paddy has another funny anecdote from his Gresham days. \u201cThere were a lot of men up from the country to work on the new building sites that were going up all round the city, and they would often stay in caravans on the sites, to save money, but they would always try to get in to the dances at the Gresham for a bit of companionship and friendliness.<\/p>\n
\n \u201cWell, this girl came up to me one night and said, \u2018Paddy, I know if I refuse to dance with someone who asks me, I might be barred, but I can\u2019t dance with one of those lads \u2013 they\u2019re greasy!\u2019 I couldn\u2019t understand so went and consulted with the manager, and we soon discovered the explanation. These building workers hadn\u2019t the wherewithal to buy Brylcreem to tame their hair before going into a dance hall, so apparently they would use the grease from the frying pan to smooth down their locks. I never did find out how that problem got sorted though, or even if it ever did!\u201d\n <\/p>\n
In time, such was the popularity of the dances at the Gresham that other venues sprang up. The Palm Court on nearby Caroline St, Paddy recalls, and then the Gaylord on Patrick Street. \u201cI\u2019m sure your readers will remember a few more, Jo, where the old-time dancing still went on.\u201d I\u2019m sure they will, Paddy, and I\u2019m asking them right now to come on here and tell the rest of us!<\/p>\n
There were country dances too of course, in village halls and on platforms at crossroads. This was one of the very few occasions when the lonely bachelor farmer from up the mountain got the chance to meet with friends and even, crossed fingers, get to hold a girl in his arms for the brief length of a dance. Maybe this would be the night he met the woman of his dreams and found a partner to share his life.<\/p>\n
For those of us who grew up in cities, it is sometimes hard to imagine how lonely the life of a single farmer could be. The occasional dance or a Saturday night trip to the nearest pub offered the only entertainment, and these days even the pub is becoming less of an option, given the drink-driving regulations. Why don\u2019t more country pubs offer transport, we ask? And why not a bit of set dancing, like they used to have in the Mills Inn at Ballyvourney back in the \u201960s? Anybody for the Coolea Stomp?<\/p>\n
Going to a dance at the Gresham was certainly a tried and trusted way of meeting new people and making new friends, agrees Paddy O\u2019Brien. And that was why, in later years, when the dance hall had long gone, he instigated what was to become a huge Cork event, The Over 60s Talent Competition.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was in 1977 I got that going, and it was determinedly aimed at tackling loneliness among older people. More and more they were being left to themselves, with their families gone from them, far too busy to call in and see how their parents were doing.<\/p>\n
\n \u201cBy getting these events going, it brought so many elderly folk out, encouraged them to show their talents, gave them a pride in their achievements \u2013 it was heart-warming.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
It was a very new idea, but the indefatigable Paddy went round to every club and hall, asking if they would let him host a heat there. Then he organised posters and publicity \u2013 \u201cI have to say The Echo and Examiner were incredibly helpful on that side. Declan Hassett couldn\u2019t do enough for me, and Noel Spillane and Kevin Mills were towers of support.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Competition](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/5031818_3_articleinlinemobile_LC_20o60_2001.jpg\" "\\"Competition")
Competition organiser Paddy O’Brien onstage at the Over 60s Talent Competition semi-final event in 2016 at City Hall.\u00a0 Picture: Larry Cummins<\/p>\n
From those small beginnings, the project gradually expanded until there were hundreds crowding the venues for each heat. The finals grew so big that they had to be held in the City Hall – the only place with the required seating space for those wanting to attend.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo see the delight on the faces of the finalists was worth all the work. Friends and relatives were coming from all over the place, even flying in from other countries to see Mum or Grandad taking to the stage.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt gave the competitors such a boost, such a sense of belonging, of still being somebody.\u201d<\/p>\n
And Paddy has never stopped in his drive to combat loneliness among older people. \u201cIf anything, that problem has got worse over the years, with far less of the neighbourliness and companionship we took for granted long ago when at least you knew who your neighbours were on either side of you. So I thought I would start touring the finalists from the different years to nursing homes across Cork, bringing their talents and friendship to the guests there. It is such a rewarding event every time. Long may I and the troupe be able to go on doing it.\u201d<\/p>\n
And we second that, Paddy. Long may you go on bringing joy and friendship and a sense of achievement to those who are no longer young, and to those who could do with a bit more company in their daily lives.<\/p>\n
Were you ever in the over 60s talent heats? Did you ever dance at the crossroads? Tell us all about it right now.<\/p>\n