Daly Brothers Athy 1961 / Dreamland

1961 was an important milestone in my life.  In January of that year I left Athy to work in Naas.  Nowadays the county town is just up the road, a short car distance away, but back 47 years ago it seemed as far away as Cavan town is today.  That same year two Daly brothers left their hometown of Athy, one having disposed of a business which his parents had established in Stanhope Street, the other closing the door on a butchering business which he had carried on from a small premises in Leinster Street.  Tom Daly’s shop in Stanhope Street, separated from Noonan’s pub by the curiously named ‘Garter Lane’ was where the Taaffes bought their daily ration of milk.  I remember Tom Daly quite well and can picture in my mind’s eye the thickset man who took over the business which had previously been operated by his father Laurence Daly.  Tom’s brother Joe was the butcher who in 1961 moved to Bray in County Wicklow.  I don’t remember Joe who at 17 years of age enlisted in the Irish Army during the second World War and while there became apprenticed to the butchering trade.  When he was demobbed at the end of the European hostilities Joe opened his own shop at No. 65 Leinster Street where he carried on business for approximately 12 years before migrating across the Wicklow Gap to the seaside town of Bray.  Joe passed away on 21^st March last at 82 years of age.  He had maintained contact with his home town over the years and as a keen sportsman followed the stumbling progress of the Lilywhites each year in the league and football championships.  Sportswise, one of Joe’s proudest moments came about when his greyhound ‘Cheeky Robin’ won through to the final of the Coursing Derby in 1960.

While the Daly brothers and a gawky red-haired youngster from Offaly Street were moving away from the familiar streets of Athy in 1961, a somewhat older but still relatively young man was busily planning on extending his ballroom empire to the South Kildare town.  Albert Reynolds was his name and although working full time for C.I.E. he still managed with his brother to build up a formidable array of dance venues around the country, including the aptly named Dreamland here in Athy. 

I think it was the summer of 1961 when Victor Sylvester and his orchestra featured on the opening night of Dreamland Ballroom.  I was there that night, having travelled from Naas courtesy of Carmel Fitzpatrick’s trusted Ford Prefect accompanied by several girls from Kildare County Council.  It was a great night, so unlike the dances previously attended in the Town Hall or the Social Club Hall in St. John’s Lane.  Dreamland was the real thing, what with a revolving crystal ball hanging from the ceiling casting it’s reflected light on the semi-dark interior of what was essentially a gentrified barn.  But it was a barn with a difference.  For that night, and am I right in believing that it was for that night only, a revolving stage was employed to glide Paddens Murphy’s Sorrento Band backstage as the London maestro Victor Sylvester and his men came into view playing the same tune as the departing local musicians.  I can’t ever remember the revolving stage being used again, but then of course it wasn’t needed as relief bands only came into vogue at the end of the showband era which came many years later.

I was reminded of Dreamland and the part it played in the lives of every local man and woman over 55 years of age when I heard of the Nostalgic Showband night planned for Wednesday, 7^th May.  The venue this time is to be the Carlton Abbey Hotel, but I am told the bands performing will recreate for us the atmosphere of the sixties and the exciting times we had in Dreamland and the other smaller venues which came on stream towards the end of the ballroom era.   Back in the 1960’s and the 1970’s almost every provincial Irish town had its band.  Musicians of an earlier era had been encouraged in their musicianship by the plethora of marching bands which were once a feature of Irish life.  The emergence of the showbands ushered in by the Clipper Carlton from Northern Ireland brought with it fresh outlets for young musicians.  Here in Athy, which had bands to rival the Mick Delahunty’s of this world in the Sorrento Band and the Stardust Band, young fellows were gravitating to guitar playing, and to a lesser extent to other musical instruments.  If Dreamland was showcasing the best of the Irish showbands of the time, many of the smaller venues in and around the town were offering their version of the then current music.  The Town Hall, the Parochial Hall in St. John’s Lane which was previously known as the Social Club, the Oasis in Meeting Lane and the Band Wagon in Offaly Street were just some of those local venues where aspiring local musicians played.

I can’t say which of the local bands emerged first but amongst them were the Adelaide Showband, the Albtros Band, Harry and the Escorts and The Spotlights.  Later still as the showband music scene waned and musical tastes broadened Athy had several new combinations including Woodbine, the Flint Hill Boys and Wordworm. 

The musical evolution which started with the showbands continues to this day and many of the current local musical groups have links extending back over the years.  It might perhaps be invidious to mention just some of those involved as inevitably someone worthy of mention might be unintentionally omitted.  Rather than doing so therefore may I simply pay a well earned tribute to all those local musicians and musical groups, all of whom have contributed so much to community enjoyment since Albert Reynolds and his brother first opened the doors of ‘our Dreamland’.

On Wednesday 7^th May the Carlton Abbey Hotel will host the Nostalgic Showband Night which is being organised by Robert Chanders and his colleagues to raise funds for the Irish Wheelchair Association in Teach Emmanuel.  That night many of the local bands of the past will come together for perhaps the last time to recreate our fading memories of a time when the showband was king.  Sadly one of the local musicians who entertained us for many years and who was an original member of the Adelaide Showband is now wheelchair bound and availing of the excellent services provided at Teach Emmanuel in the grounds of St. Vincent’s Hospital.  Support for Teach Emmanuel and the Irish Wheelchair Association is very important and the forthcoming showband night on 7^th May will give all of us an opportunity to give that support, while reliving the romantic nights of yesteryear enjoyed in Dreamland Ballroom and elsewhere.

On Tuesday 29^th April in Trinity College Dublin the memoirs of Professor Bill Watts will be launched.  Born in Barrack Yard, Athy from where he attended the local Model School, Bill later became Provost of Trinity College Dublin.  The local Council graciously gave a civic reception for the former Provost a few years ago which was attended by many of his former school pals and family friends.  I know that the Town Fathers gesture was greatly appreciated by Bill and his family and the forthcoming memoirs which will be launched by the poet Brendan Kenneally has, I believe, a chapter devoted to the Watts family’s time in Athy.  It’s a book which will surely be of interest to readers in Athy. 

Finally, anyone wishing to contact me in relation to these articles can do so by logging on to www.athyeyeonthepast.blogspot.com.  The Eye on the Past articles appear on that blog and as always I would welcome hearing from anyone in a position to help me better understand and interpret the ever unfolding story of our historic town and it’s people.

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A ‘Cultural Desert’ is how Athy was once described to me. There may have been an element of truth in that claim at a time when the town, having lost its cinema and its Town Hall ballroom, was also regretting the closure of Dreamland. It was that barn of a building on the Kilkenny Road which brought so much joy into the lives of the younger generation of Athy folk in the 60s and the 70s. A cultural oasis it was not, but somehow the Showband scene in which Athy’s Dreamland played such a prominent part was all we needed in those far off days to live out our dreams and brighten lives which were played out in the relatively unsophisticated Ireland of the 1960s.

Nowadays our lives have changed. Our expectations are much higher than they were 40 or so years ago. We demand a greater variety and a range of leisure activity than ever before and Athy which has always boasted some of the finest field sport facilities in the county of Kildare has of recent times come to life insofar as cultural pursuits are concerned. The ‘cultural desert’ began to retreat when Athy was designated a Heritage Town and obtained Bord Failte finance to develop the ground floor of the old Market House and Town Hall as a heritage centre. This development allowed what was previously an underused building of character and of no little architectural merit located in a prime location in the centres of the town to host lectures, exhibitions and festivals including the Shackleton Autumn School and the annual Medieval Festival.

In recent weeks we have witnessed the opening of the newly formed Athy Film Club based in the fine 60 seater auditorium in the newly built Athy College and the opening of the Community Arts Centre in Woodstock Street. The ‘cultural desert’ has finally disappeared and Athy can now boast a range of activities to meet the most exacting of local demands. As I write a piano recital by concert pianist Seiko Tsukomoto is scheduled for Friday night in the Arts Centre and over the next few weeks the Centre will host a series of concerts, performances and recitals, all of which are deserving of support.

On May Day the Community Arts Centre hosted an afternoon series of lectures on the development of Trade Unionism amongst the agricultural workers of South Kildare which was followed by an evening of songs and story by an American Professor of Literature who is based in England. Will Kaufman gave a wonderful rendition of some of Woody Guthrie’s songs interlaced with an invigorating and instructive commentary on American history of the 1930s and ‘40s. It proved to be one of the best performances I have enjoyed this or last year.

The Athy Heritage Centre is moving towards achieving museum status and when this happens the Centre will hopefully be able to display material, particularly artefacts found over the years in the South Kildare area, which are presently in storage in the National Museum in Dublin. If and when Museum status is granted it will represent a major advancement for the town of Athy.

The Heritage Centre, the Arts Centre and the Cinema Club could not and cannot survive without your support so this gentle reminder to all readers to make use of these great cultural local outlets whenever you can.

I learned of the recent death of Bill Watts, former Provost of Trinity College, whose early days were spent in Athy where he attended the Model School. I first met Bill some years ago, following which I wrote an Eye on the Past on the Athy man, whom I then believed, had been the only man from the South Kildare town to head up Ireland’s oldest and most famous university. In his autobiography published about a year and a half ago Bill devoted a chapter to his youthful life in Athy and it was at the launch of the book in the Long Library of Trinity College that I last met him. His passing is much regretted.

Incidentally I have recently come across another Athy man who also held the position of Provost of Trinity College. A copy of Volume III of Eye on Athy’s Past book to the first reader who can give me that man’s name.

The local Lions Club opened its Saturday bookshop at Leinster Street on Saturday. It will be open for the sale of second hand books each Saturday from 12 – 5pm for the foreseeable future. Used books can also be donated for re-sale, with all proceeds going to local charities.