Yet there was, beneath the surface of social control, a palpable desire for escape. Most young people preferred to dance outside their own immediate neighbourhood. Whenever possible they did not support the local halls.
Dancing is as anonymous in rural areas as it is in cities.
Behind the vague discontent of the young was an awareness that Ireland was being left behind. Throughout the world, the fifties were the start of an unprecedented economic boom. But the sense of prosperity was shared by much of Europe. The Soviet Union in the fifties was growing faster than any western economy. Germany and Japan were recovering from their devastating defeat in 1945 with remarkable rapidity.