“My uncle, Paddy O’Flaherty, and his cousin, Lily Kileen from Finglas. Paddy was a well-known and engaging ballroom dancer around Dublin from the 1950s to 2000. He won competitions in Mosney and won RTÉ’s Come Dancing, hosted by Larry Gogan, in the late 1960s. Even in his later years he was a regular on the over-35s and over-50s circuit, travelling regularly to participate in competitions in Blackpool Tower, and will be fondly remembered by the ballroom dancing community. He was a painter decorator by trade and loved nothing more than regaling his customers with behind-the-scenes stories of the glamour beneath the glitter globe.
He was a great hit at local weddings – a Rock Hudson-type charmer, always willing to give the glamorous grandmothers a twirl around the floor – and was well known around Cabra, Drumcondra and Phibsboro, where he lived. Lily died in the early 1970s and Paddy himself passed away in 2004. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a hanam.'”
(1952)
Submitted by Gráinne O’Neill