Mayo dancehall was bombed twice by rival promoter

Thirty-nine people attended a public meeting on May 7, 1962, in the Boys’ National School in Claremorris to establish the need for a Town Hall in the town. The view was unanimous that a proper venue was needed, and a committee was formed which included Michael J Reidy, Dr Roderick Maguire, Padraic Brennan, Arthur Hanley, Seamus O’Malley, Thomas H. Kean, Pat Merrick, and Michael Prendergast, to get the project started. 

The site chosen was on lands originally donated to the parish in 1807 by Denis Brown of Claremont House. A church had been built there which closed in 1911 when the present church was built. The disused church had been turned into a Parochial Hall but this Hall was closed by 1962, and was in disrepair and generally unsuitable.

At that time, there were no grants available from any source. The committee sought the help of the archbishop at the time, Most Rev Dr Joseph Walsh, and he agreed to provide £5,000 on condition that the community raised a further £3,000. The target of £3,000 was exceeded - over £5,000 was collected – such was the enthusiasm for a Town Hall.

The Hall was designed by Michael J Reidy, and built in 1968 and 1969 by P McHugh & Sons at a cost of approximately £40,000. A loan was taken out to finance the build. The hall opened in June of 1969. The early success of the venue was as a dance hall. The hall opened in the height of the showband era, a time of social change in Ireland.

By the 1960s, Irish society had moved on from the ‘matchmaking’ method of getting couples together, and young men and women enjoyed the freedom of public dances where they could meet potential partners of their own choosing. The new Claremorris Town Hall fitted snugly into this jigsaw of Irish culture, joining halls of various sizes, located all over the country, as social hubs where bands of musicians played for two to two and a half hours, once a week, to packed audiences.

A local man, Seamus Gallagher, was responsible for booking bands for the dances at Claremorris Town Hall, which proved enormously popular.

The first band to play at the venue took to the stage on Friday, June 20th, 1969. They were The Royal Blues, a band with local members Frank and Vincent Gill, managed by another local man, Andy Creighton. The attendance was around 1,700 people. The Royal Blues were very popular at the time, and played in the venue many times over the years. The opening dance had a packed attendance and word of the atmosphere in the venue spread across the region and the Hall enjoyed a period of great success as a dance venue.

Dances were held in the venue on Sunday nights and, busses drew crowds from all over Mayo, north Galway and west Roscommon. Other halls operated in the same area, most notably in Tooreen, Pontoon, Castlebar, Kiltimagh, Castlerea and Tuam.

The bands were paid a percentage of the gross takings, usually 60%. The bigger the crowd, the more money the band went home with. Bigger halls could accommodate more dancers, so these were more attractive to the bands than smaller venues.

Anne Murphy, better known as Nancy, was a businesswoman in Cong. She had two shops in the town as well as a small dance hall, which she started building when she was just 19 years old. The hall had been operating successfully on Sunday nights. 

The emergence of Claremorris Town Hall hit Nancy’s hall badly. She couldn’t attract the top bands who had switched to playing in Claremorris, and attendance at her venue fell sharply. Nancy decided that intervention was needed to save her business.

In the 1970s, ‘The Troubles’ were raging in Northern Ireland. RTÉ radio and television stations, and national newspapers, were dominated by detailed reports of bombings and explosions in Northern Ireland on a continuous basis. Bombing and its resultant destruction could be seen in the homes of those with television sets every night.

Nancy Murphy was aged 35 in 1972 when she decided to attack the business success of Claremorris Town Hall. Initially, during a casual conversation with friends in Galway, the suggestion to set fire to the hall came up. The conversation progressed to bombing, or more especially, to bomb Claremorris Town Hall out of existence. This would remove the competition and return the dancers to Nancy’s hall in Cong, and bring back the glory days and profits, or so she thought.

Through her contacts in Galway, Nancy sourced two bombers, Frank Condron and Danny Byrne, and engaged them to act on her behalf. The brief was to blow up Claremorris Town Hall at a time when the building was unoccupied, maximising damage to the building whilst minimising the risk to life.

At 5am on Tuesday, November 7, 1972, a bomb exploded on the east side of the hall which caused €3,000 worth of damage to a billiards room and to the roof of the auditorium. No structural damage was caused to the building. Locals helped clear up the debris and make the place safe and serviceable for the next Sunday night dance.

On the morning of the explosion, there was confusion in the town as to what exactly had happened - as was to be expected following such a random attack. It was thought that the nearby telephone exchange might be the target. Windows were damaged in nearby houses due to the force of the explosion.

Initially, the bombing was thought to be a serious and unexpected consequence of the Northern Troubles, and the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) – a loyalist paramilitary group from the North – was suspected of involvement. Were it true, this would have been a major escalation of the Troubles, and this caused great concern nationally. In the days that followed the bombing, both the UVF and the IRA denied any involvement. The hall was repaired by local volunteers anxious to keep the venue open, and continued to operate successfully until Nancy’s bombers struck again.

At 5.55am on March 17, 1973, a second bomb exploded at Claremorris Town Hall. Again, the bomb was placed against the same external wall. On this occasion, the damage was much greater, destroying the outer wall, windows and sanitary ware in the bathrooms. Once again, there was confusion in the community as to what had happened and why. It was believed to be the work of the same bombers, due to the similarity of location of the device and the operational style. Since the previous year’s bombers had not been found, nor the reason for the bombing established, a reward of £1,000 was offered for information which would lead to the arrest and successful charge of the culprits.

The community spirit ensured that the debris was cleared up once again, and the hall was made safe for a dance later that night, which went ahead. This involved the work of 30 or so people, who brought in materials and tools to ensure the venue was ready for the dancers.

Parents of the young dance-goers concerned for their safety were reluctant to let the youngsters attend that night, but news of the bombing made the dancers excited and curious and they couldn’t wait to get to the hall to see the damage.

The committee was concerned with the ongoing reputational damage the bombings might have on the hall’s dance business. They were concerned that dancers and bands would feel unsafe or at risk in the venue. The hall received several hoax telephone calls claiming that bombs had been placed in the venue for some months after the 1973 bombing, but none were found. These calls were believed to be from other competitors or pranksters.

Numerous stories circulate as to how the bombers were caught. There were various claimed sightings, reports of car collisions, recordings of number plates and suspicious activity. Danny Byrne was arrested in Dublin in the days after the bombing, and readily told the gardaí of his involvement, and named his co-conspirators.

Frank Condron and Nancy Murphy were tried at the Special Criminal Court in Dublin in the autumn of 1974. Nancy Murphy pleaded guilty to the two charges of causing explosions at Claremorris Town Hall. After paying €6,000 in compensation to the court, Nancy was sentenced to five years In Mountjoy Prison. Condron, too, received a five-year sentence. Byrne wasn’t sentenced until 1977 when he, too, received a five-year term.

Nancy Murphy was quite relaxed in jail, passing her time knitting and learning to weave baskets. She didn’t serve the full term and on her release sold baskets from her shop in Cong to tourists and townspeople who never mentioned her jail term in her company.

Claremorris Town Hall continued to attract the best bands and huge numbers of dancers throughout the 1970s.

As well as a dancehall, the venue operated as a community centre for the town and surrounding areas. A large variety of leisure activities were held in the venue in the 1970s. These included bingo, snooker, badminton, arts, drama, parish socials, card games, karate, ceilis, aerobics, exhibitions, adult education, boy scouts’ camps and youth discos.

The hall made substantial profits and repaid its bank loan. Further profits were distributed to community and sporting organisations within the area. Clubs and organisations including GAA, athletics, boxing, golf, badminton, swimming and handball benefiting from payments. Other beneficiaries were schools, playgrounds, Community Games, Boy Scouts, St Vincent De Paul, Red Cross, Barnacarroll Complex, opera, arts and St Colman’s College, who all benefited from these grants.

In the early 1980s, the dancehall business declined nationally. This was due to the fact that these venues didn’t serve alcohol; they were known as “dry halls”. Discos opened in hotels, serving alcohol past midnight, and patrons flocked there – leaving the halls empty and the showband scene devastated. Claremorris Town Hall was no different. With significantly reduced attendances, dances operated at a loss, and at the end of the summer of 1982, Seamus Gallagher resigned as bookings manager, and Sunday night dances discontinued at the end of the same year.

Throughout the '80s and '90s, a number of different events were held in the hall. These included GAA Bord na nÓg discos, meetings of many organisations including the AA, sports and community organisations. The annual Drama Festival was held each March and the Claremorris Open Arts Exhibition in the autumn. The venue was also used to house the District Court for many years.

In 2004, space was provided for a new local station – Claremorris Community Radio. Also in 2004, discussions took place about the future of the venue and one proposal was to demolish the town hall and build a new ambitious structure in its place.

In 2005, the management structure of the hall changed from a committee to a registered company – Clár Regional Centre a company limited by guarantee. Drawings were submitted and funding was sought to build the new structure. The estimated building cost was €6.12m – a long way from the initial £40,0000 cost to build the hall 36 years previously.

Planning delays and the economic crash put an end to the plans for a new building but the hall was significantly refurbished in 2014, with the aid of a €200,000 grant. Retractable tiered seating was installed, along with a new roof, a new sound system, additional lighting, the development of The Studio space and the acquisition of a bar license. The total spend at the time was around €450,000.

In 2015, the company was granted funding under the Community Services Programme, (CSP) to hire full-time staff – initially a manager, an administrator and a sound and lighting technician. The programme supports part of the staff salaries; the additional required funds must be generated from traded income.

In 2017, two additional jobs were part-funded under the CSP.

The availability of full-time staff revolutionised the way the venue could operate. A bar license was secured and a bar was installed. Concerts were held – with top international acts like Christy Moore and The Saw Doctors, playing the venue to packed houses, akin to the initial days of the hall – except seated as opposed to dancing.

The venue was further enhanced in 2019 by the increase in seating numbers, rewiring, the installation of low-energy lights, rainwater harvesting, and other general improvements. with the aid of a further grant of €75,000.

Since the venue opened in 1969, it has always enjoyed the support and goodwill of the people and the businesses of the town. In recent years, it has enjoyed the support of Clár IRD and South West Mayo Development company, and since it opened it has enjoyed the support of Mayo County Council.

Today, the venue operates as a Theatre, Concert Hall, Arts and Conference Centre with five full-time staff, and is licensed to hold 900 people.