The first of a handful of reports to come from Northern Ireland, from an all-too-brief weekend over there recently. We had one day of good solid exploring and a second day of pretty much miserable failure in miserable weather, which is just the way the cookie crumbles sometimes.
There is a surprisingly little amount of history readily available for this place which is pretty surprising. St. Malachy's Dance Hall (otherwise referred to in places as both St. Malachy's Parochial Hall and/or simply Edendork Ballroom) was built in 1963 in the small village of Edendork, in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. Located almost opposite the church of the same name, it was a latecomer to the dance hall scene but arrived at a time when Irish showbands were at their height. It hosted a number of famous names among them a certain Tom Jones as well as famed Irish folk legend Christy Moore. According to some sources the dance hall closed in the late 1990s, however I found some torn up flyers advertising a show in the hall from 2014 so I honestly don't know! It has been sat decaying in quiet solitude ever since it did close it's doors - whenever that was - although recently it's received a small amount of attention on social media after a Change.org campaign to save the building was begun. The current owners are the local school who want to demolish the building and replace it with a second site for the school - they gained planning permission but quite why they can't encompass the existing hall into the new school build is anyone's guess, all the local residents want to see it saved as it's an icon of the area so as of yet nothing has happened.
This was a pretty simple one, after a bit of a climb we were in with no bother. There really is only the stunning circular dance hall room to see, plus the lobby and a few side rooms including a weirdly inaccessible boarded off room which contained all sorts of stuff but appeared to be hidden behind a walled-off staircase. The water pouring into the place from the recent rains was alarming though, the beautiful ceiling is in a rough way already and it's only going to get worse if nothing is done to save it.
Thanks for looking
There is a surprisingly little amount of history readily available for this place which is pretty surprising. St. Malachy's Dance Hall (otherwise referred to in places as both St. Malachy's Parochial Hall and/or simply Edendork Ballroom) was built in 1963 in the small village of Edendork, in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. Located almost opposite the church of the same name, it was a latecomer to the dance hall scene but arrived at a time when Irish showbands were at their height. It hosted a number of famous names among them a certain Tom Jones as well as famed Irish folk legend Christy Moore. According to some sources the dance hall closed in the late 1990s, however I found some torn up flyers advertising a show in the hall from 2014 so I honestly don't know! It has been sat decaying in quiet solitude ever since it did close it's doors - whenever that was - although recently it's received a small amount of attention on social media after a Change.org campaign to save the building was begun. The current owners are the local school who want to demolish the building and replace it with a second site for the school - they gained planning permission but quite why they can't encompass the existing hall into the new school build is anyone's guess, all the local residents want to see it saved as it's an icon of the area so as of yet nothing has happened.
This was a pretty simple one, after a bit of a climb we were in with no bother. There really is only the stunning circular dance hall room to see, plus the lobby and a few side rooms including a weirdly inaccessible boarded off room which contained all sorts of stuff but appeared to be hidden behind a walled-off staircase. The water pouring into the place from the recent rains was alarming though, the beautiful ceiling is in a rough way already and it's only going to get worse if nothing is done to save it.
Thanks for looking
