A night of Joe Dolan nostalgia to help assist plan to provide new roof on Fethard Ballroom

The halycon days of the showband era will swing back into life in Fethard this May when the ballroom will rock again to the music of the legendary Joe Dolan.
The Fethard ballroom, whose history is inextricably linked with the golden era of the showbands, will host a very special event ‘Remembering Joe’ The Joe Dolan Show .
At the height of his fame the late charismatic Joe Dolan,who passed away in 2007, attracted over 1,400 hundred devotees for one of his concerts at the ballroom in Fethard, at a time when it was a much smaller venue than it is today , a record attendance that is never likely to be bettered.

(Angela Shine Mooney with Joe Dolan at the Fethard Ballroom. It you have any pictures from a Joe Dolan concert that was held in Fethard please send them to elacey@nationalist.ie  or in the build up to the big night in the Fethard Ballroom if you have any stories of meeting your life long partner at a "Joe Show" in Fethard  let us know)Members of Joe Dolan's family and some of the members of the Joe Dolan band who would have played in Fethard on a regular basis back in the seventies and eighties, will make a return to Fethard to assist a local community in their efforts to ensure the survival of the venue long into the future.
A fundraising campaign has started to provide the Fethard landmark with a new roof and the Dolan spectacular, which promises to be a night of nostalgia in Fethard, is being held to meet the some of the significant costs involved.
Joe's brother, Ben and his two sons and daughter Adrian, Ray and Sandra, with Karen Carroll and members of the original Joe Dolan band will perform in the Fethard ballroom on Saturday May 4 (tickets are now on sale at Fethard Post Office and Marians in Clonmel).
"It will be fantastic to see the familiar faces, we are excited about returning to Fethard which was always an incredible venue for Joe." said his nephew Adrian.
"There was always a massive audience for Joe in Fethard , they were very special nights.It will be a nostalgic occasion, Joe is not with us any longer but his music still is and we are going to have a great night of celebration of his music on the night in Fethard" said Adrian.
"We would love to see couples that might have met at one of Joe's show s all those years ago , it would be fantastic to recreate the very special atmosphere of those nights in Fethard when Joe was such a major attraction. These are very emotional nights for the band, wherever we tour we hear all of the great stories of the concerts going back to the seventies and eighties and we love to talk to people about what Joe's music meant to them and we are keeping all of that alive,"said Adrian.
He described Fethard as a special venue with its own unique character and was delighted that the band were returning to raise funds to help a local community secure the future of the venue.
"A lot of these dancehalls that were so important in communities are derelict and out of use now and it is great to see the people of Fethard coming together to ensure the future of the building" said Adrian.
The Fethard ballroom is thriving now between social dancing on a Sunday night which is proving very popular and it is being used by more and more community organisations on a weekly basis.
Sean O'Donovan,who is a member of the committee and has taken on organising the concert, said a new committee had formed last year and they were determined to take on the challenge of providing a new roof for the building.
"It has been known for a few years now that it was a job that had to be done so there was a great desire among the group to set about the task" said Sean O Donovan.
He praised a previous committee who had been responsible for reviving the fortunes of the venue from 1993 after it had been closed since 1988.
"They did great work to open it up again after being closed for so many years and now a new group have to get on with the fundraising required for a new roof. Completing this job will safeguard the long term future of the building and this is the first major fundraiser we are holding for this project" he said.
Sean, who has organised the annual South Tipperary Hospice Concertin the Hotel Minella for years, said they were delighted to get the Dolan family back to Fethard after so many years.
"We wanted to do something special and having the Dolan family involved is the icing on the cake given that Fethard was such a popular venue for Joe Dolan to perform in at a time when he was an international star and the crowds that came to see him in Fethard were just amazing" he said.

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