Dancing - one of the great perils of our time?

Ballaghadereen, 4 Dec 1917 - What are the great perils of our time?

The Most Rev. Dr Morrisroe, Bishop of Achonry, has some thoughts on the matter which he outlined in a letter to all of the priests in his diocese.

While the focus of the letter remained on the restoration of peace and harmony among nations, the bishop also stressed the need to deliver our ‘distracted country’ from other evils that threaten the moral law.

What could they be? The answer, it would appear, is dancing. ‘It is said that there is a mixing of the sexes at meetings taking place in some of the young men’s clubs,’ Bishop Morrisroe remarked. ‘This, of course, is an unmitigated source of danger, and should be sternly inhibited.’

The bishop added that dances of this kind that take place ‘without proper supervision, and that lead to ill-assorted companionships, in circumstances of danger, ought to be unsparingly reprobated’.

Nor, he continued, should schoolrooms be used for such displays as these would, of course, be ‘contrary to the rules of the Board of Education.’

Bishop Morrisroe also instructed that Cardinal Logue’s recent letter be read out at mass in every church in the diocese.

[Editor's note: This is an article from Century Ireland, a fortnightly online newspaper, written from the perspective of a journalist 100 years ago, based on news reports of the time.]