Glassdrummond Hall was a small single roomed building
in a hollow opposite the old church. It is
still there, dilapidated and forlorn, almost 60 years after I first entered its
bright - and to me exciting - atmosphere.
It was used for dances and plays, bazaars and other
parish functions. The dances were mainly ceilidhes; reels, jigs and set dances.
I painfully recall my first Waves of
Tory. One of the sequences of this set
was for couples to line up facing each other down the length of the hall and
then dance through each other alternately raising their joined hands to let the
facing couple through and ducking under the next pair of raised arms.
It was the practice for some smart alecs to wait at
the end of the line and when the couples turned to continue in the opposite
direction, administer a swift boot to the backside of the male of the pair when
he ducked under the approaching arms. When this happened to me for the first
and only time I determined to get my own back so on the next pass I delivered a
sharp back heel to the perpetrator's shin. I was left alone thenceforth.
I saw my first play there - "The Murder of Maria
Martin in The Red Barn". The play was performed on a dimly lit stage, red
and sinister and it made a lasting impression on me.
Reminiscence 
