Moyland Ballroom, Ballina, Co. Mayo
The 15th in the line of James and Albert
Reynolds' "land" ballrooms was a comparative latecomer to the scene as
it opened on December 6th, 1968 to the sounds of the Royal Showband. In the
article announcing the opening of the
latest Reynolds ballroom, it was said it cost £40,000 to build and took only
eleven weeks from turning the first sod to holding
the first dance (both, by the way, done by Brendan Bowyer). Although the article
did not state the size of the ballroom,
it would appear to be the standard (4500 sq ft dance floor) that most of
the land ballrooms took on. From its opening and for several
years it enjoyed good success, was being pushed hard by the Ballina Town Hall
which was also running big name dances around the
same time. Sadly, it appears the last dance (that we can find advertised) was
held January 30th 1972 and it was Eileen Reid and 2nd Sound.
A couple of years later, the advert appeared announcing the sale of the ballroom
and shortly after that, an auction of all the contents
of the ballroom followed by the announcement in earely 1975 that it was becoming
a shopping centre (although it actually became
a cash and carry. Based on the photo below from Google, it now lies empty again.
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