Baldy Grandfathers
and Old Maids Dancing...
January 1922.
To the Editor, Nationalist and
Leinster Times. Carlow.
Dear Sir,
Time was when no married folk and
few middle-aged persons "took" to the dance floor. Of course
allowances must be made for the man "who was no older than
he felt" and the old maid who was as young as (she thought)
she looked. Struggling hard to avoid being indexed amongst
the "wall flower" variety. Nowadays all this is changed.
Old grandfathers who might pass for
Santa Clauses,baldy heads, and old maids, musty, and well
seasoned from "the shelf" make their presence felt,and may
be seen nightly enjoying themselves on the floor.
No one can gainsay that dancing when
properly carried out, is good and pleasant exercise and
helps to keep the heart young, but when it comes to what
occurred in Portlaoighise recently at a fancy dress ball
there when the lights were all turned off at a certain time,
and as part of the programme, one wonders what we are coming
to.
Surely no peace treaty , prisoners
home coming , etc., can excuse such a proceeding as this in
the capital of Laoighis and the sooner for the dignity and
morality of Ireland such Vivian-like conduct is put an end
to the better for all.
It was surely bad enough to have
drinking bars set up for the sale of intoxicants, etc., at
such functions, but now to have "lights out " at a certain
time in the middle of a fancy dress ball, with showers of
confetti - - and let us hope, old boots --is certainly
carrying such abuse beyond the limit of Christian endurance,
and is a headline unworthy of the traditions of O'Moore's
county.
It is a sad state of affairs if on
the eve of our deliverance from foreign bondage we are to be
plunged straightaway into the heaten practices of
Continental Atheists.
A few weeks ago in London the moral
press of England was shocked by a Russian ballet dance, got
up by the nobility of London, at which the dancers were all
attired --well, as Adam and Eve were --and it seems we are
on the road to such here in Ireland, if some one, or
organisations of authority do not exert themselves to
protect the youth of the country from such dances, as that
provided for by the Continental people of Portlaoighise
quite recently. --
- (signed) GLANA.
- (name and address with the editor, card enclosed).
[Note added by Michael Purcell 2010.
No way of knowing who this letter was from but I bet it was
from some Parish Priest who like the Carlow gentry seems to
have his (or her) finger on the pulse of the Irish Nation in
1922. Portlaoighise is the old spelling for Portlaoise
formerly Maryborough in the Queen's County now county
Laois.]