Remembering Times Gone by in Connolly Hall. One of Ballymahon's oldest citizens, Christy Roche recalls the fantastic travelling shows and circuses that visited the town's landmark hall many years ago. For generations one of Ballymahon's oldest buildings Connolly Hall has been at the heart of the local community. The building itself has gone through a number of transformations since its early glory days, functioning as a dance hall, theatre, picture house, nightclub, bar and restaurant for various periods under different ownership. The building, which is thought to date as far back as the 1860s, was also a famous haunt for the travelling shows and circuses of times gone by. The grandparents of Ballymahon businessman Adrian Duncan then owned the hall. Christopher Roche was born and lived on Main St in Ballymahon, where Kevin Duncan's victuallers is now located and he recalls the glory days of one of the town's most famous buildings. "We lived there, right across from my grandmother's Mr Collins. We moved from here to the Athlone Road in 1929." he remembered. Mr Roche has fond memories of the hall, which hosted the one and only cinema in Ballymahon in the 1920s - indeed it's worth noting that ninety years later, the town has no cinema! Previous to Mr Connolly's ownership, a Mr Kennedy owned the building, and in it there was a corn store that also offered baled hay to the British Army and supplied areas in Athlone. Mr Kennedy was also involved in the construction of St Matthew's Church in Ballymahon, and his name is displayed on a plaque on the side of the steeple building. According to Mr Roche, Connolly Hall, owned by Bab Connolly at that time also included coachworks with a generator in a garage on the ground floor. The pictures hall and gallery were located on the upper level of the building and Mr Connolly also ran a hackney service in the area. During the summertime, the hall would show pictures twice a week, with a matinee on Sundays. "I used to be extremely anxious to get in on a Sunday and would save up each week to make sure I had the four pence admission fee in my fist by the end of it," he said. "When you got in it was just wonderful! But when the films used to break down in the hall, all hell would break loose," grinned Mr Roche. "Mischief and all sorts! But once the lights were turned back on, sanity would be somewhat restored again." He also remembers the man known as the "bell ringer" - Joe Rutledge - who would walk up and down the town ringing the bell. "You could stop him in the street to find out what episode of what picture was being shown that night," said the well-known local," and he would also ring the bell for when auctions were being held in Floods." The then Floods property is not the well known sporting bar - The Canal Turn. The travelling shows were this Ballymahon man's favourite treat on offer in Connolly Hall however and Mr Roche has very clear memories of those. "Vic Loving was the best - no doubt about it!" said Mr Roche, without a second of hesitation. "Her costumes, her music, dance acts and dramatics were the most entertaining and I always looked forward to her shows coming into town the most." Vic Loving came to Connolly Hall twice a year and with her own band, was billed as the "best travelling show on the road." "I remember one occasion," recalled Mr Roche, "when Vic stood up on stage and said 'we're putting on a panto on Friday night, and if you don't laugh at my husband and Sonny Coll as the ugly sisters - you better see a doctor!' and I've always remembered laughing so hard at the way she said it! She was some girl!" "Bamboozalem" was the name of another show that played Ballymahon sometime around the year 1940. "The star performer was Edgar Bennyon and he was a New Zealand wizard," said Mr Roche. Mr Roche admitted that as a child he used to become very upset at the end of each week when the people performing in Connolly hall would be leaving town. "I used to cry when Monday came," he said. Indeed, as a boy, Mr Roche was right in the thick of things, with his grandmother, Mrs Collins running a sweetshop and guesthouse on the Main Street of the town, where many of the showpeople, 'especially the Carrickfords', Mr Roche recalled, would often come to stay. Mrs Collins' guesthouse was located where Ms Dorothy Lovell now resides. There is now a soccer competition in honour of Bob Connolly. The Connolly Cup match is played on St Stephen's Day, annually in memory of the Ballymahon man. "Bob Connolly started the first soccer team in Ballymahon in the 1930s," said Mr Roche, "and I attended all the matches - rain, hail or shine!" Mr Roche's family also had another part to play in the accommodation of the travelling performers, in that when the circus came to town, their farm down by the river was the source of hay for the horses and a stock of potatoes for the circus people. "I remember that my late good friend Paddy Fahey, who was a circus man himself, used to call down to get feed for the horses and collect potatoes," he said. The circus would be held in Donnelly's field, on the Ballymulvey road. Fred Lewis was the name of the advance agent who would come along to put up posters before the circus arrived and he would often stay at Mr Roche's grandmother's lodging house. "There's not too many around anymore who remember details like these, but a couple of other people have helped me to recall them must be credited for it - Mike Grehan, Tony and Frank Tiernan and Val and Brendan O'Sullivan," he pointed out. Mr Roche concluded, "I believe it's important to make sure these things are recorded locally, and there's not too many people around who would remember the travelling shows that came to play Connolly Hall in Ballymahon these days, so it's a great way to remind people of times gone by and to remember them." Courtesy of The Longford Leader. June 2007 Tweet

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