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The Quay Road Hall on AnnStreet Ballycastle.
The original Quay Road Hall wasopened in February 1933 by LadyBoyd who supplemented her originalgift of the land in 1895 by a donationof £10 towards the hall building fund.The late Hugh Alexander Boyd, whospecialised in the history of theChurch of Ireland parish of Ramoan,wrote that the land on which the hallis built was vested in the DiocesanBoard of Education by a deed dated11
th
November 1895. The terms of this document established a perpetualtrust for “certain particular charitableobjects”, namely an infant’s school.In 1911 a new non-denominationalsecondary school replaced the infant’sschool until it too was re-located.Rental income for the school premiseshad accrued and it was decided thatthis fund could be used to build a hall.The Diocesan Board of Educationagreed a hall could be built andfundraising activities with individualdonations soon filled the buildingfund.By 1933 the hall was completed, providing a venue, in the DiocesanEducation Board’s words
“for every form of parochial activity that can bedirected for the moral physical and  spiritual uplift of our young people.”
Thus complying with the terms of theCharitable Trust of 1895.The hall quickly became a popular venue for local social events such asdances and drama productions put on by local performers. One group, ‘TheSnowdrop Band’, was formed by theretired Misses Miller of Whitehall torecite poetry and produce plays.During the war years whenBallycastle was host to servicemenfrom home and distant shores, theAmerican servicemen, in their welltailored uniforms (everyone was aGeneral), held dances in the hall twicea week. This is where Ballycastle firstgot to hear the American ‘Big Band’sound for real, learning the latestAmerican dances while mixing withCanadians, Belgians and soldiers froman assortment of British regiments.Troops were stationed all around thetown. The Americans employed localcraftsmen to add buildings at their  base at Corrymeela, which they thencalled “Camp Holiday”. Many of the
 
troops were here for training atMagilligan Strand preparing for theD-Day landings. In the first hour of the landings on Juno Beach 1,000young Canadian soldiers were killed,including many who had stayed inBallycastle.After a busy wartime the next playersin the hall’s musical history were the“Showbands”. People came on foot, by bus, tractor and train to see their favourites at the Quay Road Hall.Dick Greer managed the hall and gothis pal at the
 Flamingo
Ballroom inBallymena to sign acts for Ballycastle,even big names such as EnglebertHumperdinck and the Rolling Stones.The pop music of the time wasdominated by America. There was‘Swing’ (epitomised by Frank Sinatraand Dean Martin), ‘Country’ (TammyWynette, George Jones) and ‘Rock and Roll’ (Elvis Presley, BeachBoys), but with few of these actsvisiting Ireland, the Showbandsstepped in to do their own versions of the hits of the day.Their sound was much more relaxedthan the more brash American’s. Themain set-up was a core rhythm sectionof electric guitar, (then still a newfangled thing), bass and drums providing a steady ‘clap along’ 4/4 beat with accordion, saxophone,trumpet and piano (if there happenedto be one around), while the vocalshad an easy lyrical style the audiencecould join in with. A typicalShowband set could include anythingfrom ‘My Way’ to Love me Tender  but also include traditional local songslike ‘I’ll tell me Ma...’.One of the most successful IrishShowbands was
The Indians
, formerly
Casino
. They were a very colourfulgroup of seven or eight performerswho dressed in Native Americanoutfits and adopted Indian stagenames. Their play list featured‘Indian’ songs, some of which wereahead of their time, songs like“Cherokee People, Cherokee tribe.....”which highlighted the history and plight of the tribe in modern dayAmerica. The remainder reflected the pop charts of the day which together with their stage presence hasmaintained their popularity to the present day.Those days are best summed up inthese memories of one, not so youngArmoy man who was a regular at thehall.
“Youngsters used to walk, aye walk for miles from the country places even theGlens, to get to the dances. If they werelucky they might get a ride home on abus goin’ back to Ballymoney. They’d
of 00

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