The old hall in the village was the focal point of entertainment for many years. It was built in 1937 by Tim Ryan (Robra) who lived in the house which is now part of the Community Centre. The first band to perform in the hall was Billy Cummins from Roscrea. That was on opening night at the end of 1937. For the next twenty five years or so, Sunday night dances were held in the hall with music supplied by Matt Hayes and Bill Gleeson. Those dances were popular with people from the surrounding parishes, such as Rossmore, Upperchurch and Cappawhite. Also during those years Hollyford had a dramatic society which, we are told, was as good as any in the county. They performed many fine productions in the hall and always had a full house. Also once a week a man from Clonmel, by the name of George Sutcliffe, would present a film show in the Hall. By this time, the Hall was owned by the local Co-Op. One night when the man came to show the weekly film the hall was full with fertiliser stored by the Co-Op. George returned to Clonmel without showing the film with great disappointment to all. However local man, Nicholas Ryan, came to the rescue. He owned an old house across the road from the Hall (where the Credit Union now stands). Within a couple of weeks, he converted it to a Cinema and George was back with his weekly film show.
In 1974 when the Co- Op amalgamated with Mitchelstown the local parish Committee acquired the Hall and it was again used for functions. By 1984, it had fallen into disrepair and the Committee decided to build a new hall on the same site. The old hall was demolished and cleared by voluntary labour. As a means of fundraising, it was decided to run a Mayoral Election, a system which had been used successfully in other parishes. This succeeded beyond all expectations and raised thirty two thousand pounds, a huge figure in 1984. This amount more than paid for all the materials for the new Community Centre. Labour was provided by a Government employment scheme called A.N.C.O. which was a forerunner of F.Á.S. With the local fundraising and employment scheme, the sixty thousand pounds plus raised meant that the Community Centre was opened in June 1985 with a surplus of funds. With other works carried out by various committees through the years it is now one of the finest Community Centres in the County. |