Mayo County Library

Mayo Musicians and Music : Ballrooms of Mayo

Mayo’s Ballrooms of Dancing and Romance

Mayo was the land of the thousand dances in the 1960s and early 1970s. The dance hall was the center of the social life of the county with up to 80 ballrooms and dance venues in Mayo alone. Some of the leading showbands were from the county - Jack Ruane Showband, Doc Carroll and his Royal Blues, Shay Cribben with The Riviera, and the Brose Walsh Band. Mayo also had some of the finest ballrooms in the land, from the Moyland in Ballina to The Palm Court in Belmullet to the legendary Pontoon Ballroom.

Mayo’s Ballrooms of Dancing and Romance is a documentary on dance halls and their role in the social and cultural life of Mayo. It was produced by iMayo TV and Henry McGlade with funding from Creative Ireland. The hour long film covers all aspects of the golden age of dance halls. It is based on interviews with those who danced and played in the halls of Mayo in the fifties, sixties and seventies.