Pages from the Past: Opening of new Crescent Ballroom
Westmeath Independent, Saturday, April 24, 1965
Easter Sunday night was a joyous occasion for the young people of Athlone and the Midlands generally, when the spacious and resplendent new Crescent Ballroom was formally opened by Mr. Frank Waters, chairman of Athlone Urban Council, and a most enjoyable inaugural dance followed.
Patrons poured in from far and near, and the huge attendance testified to the immediate success of this new venture in the dance world.
Mr Noel Heavey, one of the principals of the New Crescent Company, cordially welcomed all present and said that this was not only a very important night for the Crescent Ballroom but for the town of Athlone. He said that no town had progressed so rapidly as Athlone in the last decade or two. With the expansion of the population, they had new shops, new hotels, new churches, new cinemas, and such a development as a new ballroom followed in the ordinary sequence of events. He hoped that this enlarged new Crescent Ballroom would lose none of the glamour and appeal of the old Crescent and that it would continue to be a place where parents would wish and want their children to dance and enjoy themselves.
Mr Heavey paid tribute to the contractor, Mr Alfie Lowe, and his men for their magnificent work in a short space of time.
He then called on Mr Waters, as the first citizen of Athlone, to formally declare the new ballroom opened.
Mr Waters said it was a great pleasure for him to do so, and he thanked Mr Heavey and his fellow directors for inviting him and his colleagues on the Urban Council to participate in this very happy ceremony.
Mr Waters said there was a terrific change in dancing since he was the age of the young people present here tonight.
He recalled his first dances in a little hut in Griffith Street, where he met his future wife. He hoped that the new Crescent Ballroom would also be a place where the young people of Athlone today would meet their future wives and husbands, and that it would thus have many happy memories for them in the years to come.
Very Rev. J. Canon McCarthy, P.P., St. Peter's, welcomed this added amenity to the social life of Athlone and hoped that the new ballroom would remain, for many generations to come, a place where young people would enjoy good dancing.