Per Phil McManus, Ballymagovern, Co. Cavan in the 1988 annual issue of the "Leitrim Guardian" annual magazine, as he reminisces about his youth --

"We bought a "Small Player" in Taafes. None of us smoked but we thought we might create an impression at our first dance. We were on our way to Doogra Hall. It was the last Sunday of July in 1938, the day of the Ulster Final. There was little interest in the the Final, sure Cavan wasn't playing. We were more interested in finishing off the last few cocks of hay in the long meadow and heading off to Doogra Hall. All we knew about Doogra was that it had a hall - and that there was a Doogra Fife and Drum Band that played at sports and football matches. One of our neighbors was well off, he had a gramaphone. We had spent the previous week practising our steps in his kitchen - and we had got the hang of the Barn Dance. So off we set from Cooleague Shore up the Burren Road, across the bog and out on the Newtowngore road at Leguagun. We had no Merc. We had no bicycles. But we tried to compensate the girlfriends by buying them sweets and biscuits in Taafes. The biscuits were four a penny and were about three inches wide and a quarter of an inch thick. In those days we were simple people with simple tastes. Trying to look casual with the fags in the corner of our mouths, with our ties straightened and our hair well greased down, we paid our tanner at the door. We were in the big time. The orchestra consisted of an accordeon and two fiddles that echoed off the galvanised walls. There were no microphones, echo chambers or amplifiers. I wonder what U2 would sound like in similar circumstances. The hall, with its cement floor, was only about 24 feet wide, but we hadn't the neck to cross the floor to ask the girls to dance. Anyway, the Quicksteps, Foxtrots and Waltzes were outside our repertoire. But after all the practising with the gramaphone we weren't going to miss out at the Barn Dances. We left the Highland Fling to more experiences dancers like James Donohoe and Berny Corby - and the Fling always finished up like a speed trial. Time passed and we bought bicycles. They weren't built for two, but any lassie was glad to get a lift home on the bar. When the War broke out it caused problems throughout the world - but it solved one problem in Doogra! The dances were always packed because many of the girls from the area who had been working in England returned home - so we had our choice!

"When Irish Eyes are Smiling," "Does your Mother come from Ireland?" or "Does your Mother come from Doogra?", "It's a long way to Tipperary" and the new hit "South of the Border" were the favourites. The band had no vocalist but when the M.C. called the dance we did the singing ourselves. Those were the days of the suits with the 24" bottoms - and you never took your coat off at a dance, no matter how warm it was. The girls dressed plainly - but they never came to a dance in slacks or trousers like they do now. Some of the girls would have their hair permed - and this perm was called "The Blackberry Wave," because the girls would spend a week gathering blackberries to get the price of a perm. It was tough going - blackberries were only half a crown a stone. Older people claimed these perms would ruin the girl's hair - but the girls took the chance - they wanted to have the charm. Johnny McCaffrey, especially, loved to dance with the girls with "The Blackberry Wave." (His photo as a smiling old gentleman accompanies the "L. G." article).

Towards the end of the War the Irish Army took over the hall for security reasons, and set up a checkpoint on the Ballyconnell Road. One Christmas night, a husband, wife and young son were on their way home from Midnight Mass in Drumeela. They had forgotten about the checkpoint. "Halt - who goes there?" rang out a sharp voice in the darkness. "Oh Jesus, Mary and Joseph," said the frightened woman. "Pass on Holy Family," said the soldier.

In the '40s no dances were held in Advent or Lent. But "Bells Picture Show" passed the time for us in Advent, and Murt Curran and Joe Grey ran Irish dancing classes at fourpence a night during Lent. I remember one Ash Wednesday night, we heard the news of the hanging of two Irishmen, Barnes and MacCormack, in an English Jail. That night we back on the fags. After the War young people moved away to find work in Dublin, England or America. Those of us still at home began to move further afrield to our dances - to the New Hall in Newtowngore, to Ballyconnell, to Fenaghville. We heard new bands - Fitzpatricks of Belturbet, Barney McCormack from Drumshanbo and Hughie Dooner from Ballinamore. We even danced to world championship boxer Rinty Monaghan and his band. Then we heard that Doogra Hall had been burned down. Part of our life was in ashes."