A conversation with Annie Quinn
A Glimpse of Bygone Age.
Would you have gone to many dances, Annie?
“Yes! I went to the dances; surely. I wouldn’t have missed the dance for nothin’. I went wan Sunday night tae a dance an’ Mr Eaton scowled about it for dancin’ on a Sunday.I said, well, you can think what ye like but I’m goin’ to the dance.” An’ I went to the dance, and every night after that no matter how many dances there was and he never said yer goin’ to them. He calmed down then. I would have died if I hadn’t got to the dance. I would have went as far as Aghybrack to go to a dance. I went by bicycle. Sometimes the roads were that rough that ye couldn’t have rid a bike. Or they might be covered wi’ snow but ye done the best ye could ‘til ye got the length. Ye didn’t care what ye did then.
We did the Lancers and the Sets and the Gay Gordons, an’ there was real good music. There could have been three or four fella’s playin’ the music. They played nearly all night too.
It was goin’ on in the mornin’ when ye were ready tae go home. The music was goin’ on strong. The dances would have lasted ‘til five in the mornin’.
Ye’d just time tae get back to start the work. That was all that bothered ye, getting’ back in time tae start the work.
I mine me goin’ in on a nice mornin’ an’ leavin’ off me clothes, an’ I thought,”How am I goney work?” Then, I had tae start to work because ye’d got the orders to be ready.
I lay down on the bed tae rest an’ I had the shaft o’ the brush in me hand an’ I’d batter the brush about the floor tae to let them below think I was up and workin’.
This short ‘reminiscences’ was first publish in Strabane and District Writers 2000
Gemma Hill Writeyou Writeme 