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Cloudland Ballroom, Rooskey
Opened on Thursday, September 5th, 1957, the Cloudland was one of the
most important ballrooms of the showband era.
Built by brothers Jim and (future Taoiseach) Albert Reynolds on land next to
their house, the new ballroom sat just a few
yards from what was the main Sligo-Dublin road back then next to their home. It
would be the first of 14 ballrooms
built by them and the start of the "land" ballrooms. On opening night, the music
was provided by the Melody Aces from
Newtownstewart near Strabane in County Tyrone. Although we can't find the
measurements of the hall it was built to
accommodate 1,200 dancers which was about twice the capacity of most of the
ballrooms being built in the early 1950s.
It would be one of the events which helped kick off the showband era as bands
that previously played to several
hundred patrons would soon be playing to thousands every night, making the era
extremely profitable.
Building such a big hall in a rural village (Roosky's population was around 200
back then), was a revolutionary idea which
changed the face of Irish show business. The hall would continue to be used for
years, eventually for bingo sessions,
but is now closed although still owned by the Reynolds family.
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