YESTERYEARS: Seven cinemas in south Tipperary - and showbands everywhere!

For this week’s Yesteryears we go back all of 60 years to March 1962 and feature one of the Dance Pages in that week’s edition of The Nationalist instead of the usual front.
In the days before Netflix and videos, and for the vast majority television sets, cinemas were the real deal throughout Ireland. The Nationalist was advertising films in seven local cinemas all of which are now long gone: the Ritz and Oisín in Clonmel, the Excel and Gaiety in Tipperary, the Rock in Cashel, and the Capitol Cinemas in both Cahir and Fethard.
The 60s decade was also the height of the Dance Hall Days in Ireland and our columns were heaving with ads back then promoting all the local venues.
Pat McNamara and his Orchestra were playing at the Collins Hall on Sunday, March 4, and it was being promoted as “the last big dance before Lent”. Two nights later on Shrove Tuesday the Savoy Showband were at the same venue for the “grand wind-up to the season”. (Ireland during Lent then was a much quieter place for sure).

YESTERYEARS: Criminals go on the rampage in Tipperary Town

In the Tower Ballroom in Tipperary Town, the Flying Aces Showband from Drogheda were on stage while over the road in the Oyster Ballroom in Dromkeen, Johnny Quigley was playing on Saturday night with the Woodpecker Showband back by special demand for the Shrove Tuesday gig.
The County Ballroom in Cashel was another that had two sessions that week, Jack Brierley on Sunday and Mick Fogarty on Shrove Tuesday.
At Kilnamanagh, Dundrum, The Monarchs were playing on the last Sunday night before Lent with admission 5/-. At the same venue there was a special céilí for Sinn Féin on the night before Ash Wednesday.
There was also a Gala Dance in the Town Hall in Fethard on Shrove Tuesday with Pat Doyle and his Accardo Beats on stage.

Yesteryears: Carrick-on-Suir councillor arrested and taken to Mountjoy Prison