A REMOTE village dance hall made famous as The Ballroom of Romanceby author William Trevor is to be converted to a museum of the showband era and a tourism centre.
Locals in Glenfarne, Co Leitrim, who still hold monthly dances in the ballroom, hope the €500,000 work will be completed in 12 months and the centre will open as a hall of memorabilia. They hope to recall the great days in the 1960s of the Royal Showband, the Capitol Showband, the Clipper Carlton, the Miami and many others that starred for thousands, when the only drink at the bar was a cup of tea or a mineral.
The work of John McGivern, a returned US emigrant who opened the ballroom in 1934, will also be recalled.
The building is run by Glenfarne Community Development Trust under a lease from the parish council. Trust chairman Seán McDermott, a Fine Gael member of Leitrim County Council, said: “Since it became world-famous through William Trevor’s book and the subsequent BBC film, tourists file by to take photographs. But they don’t stay.
“The idea of a museum and a tourism centre is to persuade them to spend a little more time in the village.”
The ballroom became famous in the 1970s when William Trevor was driving by and noted the “Ballroom of Romance” sign above the entrance.
When it was built it was known as McGivern’s Dance Hall although locals dubbed it the “Nissan Hut” because of its resemblance to old British army huts of the era.