Memories of The Grove 1973 to 1975 from 2025

Dublin, Early 1970's - Unemployment, Inflation, Oil Crisis, Boot Boys and Skinheads ....... it was a grim time to be a teenager. But The Grove and music played by Cecil Nolan was an escape, a refuge and a mini-paradise

 

So, what was the Grove?

At a physical level it was an event held in the “Clubhouse” of Belgrove Football Club in Clontarf. 

I say event because I never remember it being referred to, at the time, as a dance or a disco, it was just The Grove. And I say “clubhouse” but in truth it was a wooden shack that wouldn’t have looked out of place as an abandoned 1930’s homestead on the prairies of the USA with tumbleweeds rolling past and the dust devils in the distance.

Inside it was basic with the look of accommodation for soldiers in World War II but I don’t remember ever thinking it was seedy or basic, maybe because everything was seedy and basic in the 70’s.  There was an entrance hall that ran along the side at the end of which was a place to check in your coat. You paid at the entrance which was manned by bouncers who were all Gardaí from Clontarf Garda Station. This meant that The Grove was a very safe venue and in the years I was there I never saw any trouble. If there was any smell of drink off you, you didn’t get in. That’s not to say people who had alcohol take didn’t manage to get past the checks in the door, I know I did once. But the interior was always monitored for any unacceptable behaviour.

On one occasion one of my school mates, a nice guy, got in with quite a bit of drink taken. He was getting a little boisterous in the middle of the dance floor when he was spotted by the bouncers and I remember seeing them wade though the crowd, easily visible above the crowd, pick up my friend by the scruff of the neck and frog-march him out of the hall and out of The Grove.

The presence of Gardaí, for me, meant I definitely had to be on good behaviour since my father knew many of those Guards. Towards the end of my time at The Grove we might have one or two beers, in The Beachcomber, before going there. To get past the bouncers after a few drinks one trick was to smoke a cigarette! I didn’t smoke but I once borrowed a cigarette to mask any smell of drink.

And in that The Grove was different to other venues in the area. Two places I know of, a place in Fairview whose name escapes me and the St Gabriel’s Community Centre in Clontarf both held dances but both had fights outside, and inside, from time to time. I witnessed one of those fights outside St Gabriel’s, and no, I did not take part, I think. 

But clearly people smoked in The Grove. Given that this was a small space with people packed together it is a miracle that a stray cigarette didn’t start a fire. Given how the original Grove burned down in 1975, some said in 30 minutes, thankfully with no one inside, that could have been real disaster.

But it was of course so much more than a place or an event. It was in many ways a refuge from the grim 70’s when unemployment and inflation were the big worries, apart from nuclear war and environmental destruction – yes, that was a think back then. Ireland at that time was about 10 years behind Britain in teenage evolution or revolution so in some ways it was our 60’s. And to this day I will argue that the 70’s produced some of the best music ever.

Every week-end a large crowd of teenage boys and girls would gather to hear and dance to the eclectic music played by Cecil. He was actually Cecil Nolan but I, and think many others, never knew his surname at the time, he was just Cecil. It was a very un-cool name for a man who introduced us to the most wonderful music that at that time was not really accessible anywhere else.

Thinking back to my Grove time, 1973 to 1975, I realise we had very few ways of hearing music. There were very few radio stations that played any modern music and RTE Radio had only a few slots where “modern” music was heard and a lot of that was Country and Irish which was most certainly not what we wanted. This was before RTE 2, the pop station, arrived in 1978.

Other pop stations like Radio Luxembourg and BBC1 often had poor reception but they were at least a place you could hear alternative to the fairly stodgy fare from RTE.
The other issue with music on the radio was that you had to have one! It must be recalled that a good radio was an expensive item and most households had only one. So in a large family getting access to the radio to listen to your choice of music was a real challenge. There were cheap small radios available but needless to say sound quality was poor.

You could also get introduced to new sounds via family and friends. If you were lucky enough to have a large family, as most people did, your brothers or sisters would probably be buying records but  there was no guarantee their taste would be like yours. 

Visiting friends’ houses was also a good way to hear music. I remember going to my friend David Gallagher’s house when he had bought Paul McCartney’s Ram album. I really disliked it at first but I learned a lesson that great music is not always immediately likeable and in time it became one of my favourite albums. 

However most people in those days couldn’t afford a high quality record player and the sound quality left a lot to be desired on most turntables. Those record players were usually simply a turntable with a cheap speaker attached. Add to that that people didn’t always look after vinyl records properly - they got scratched and gathered dust. And the stylus was often past its best. Always mono sound of course.
In our house we had a slightly upmarket Garrard “Radiogram” which was a record deck and a radio combined.  The record deck was good quality but it was still mono. 

But then we got a proper stereo record player!  I think we bought it in 1972 and it was a Philips deck and amplifier combined. It was stereo and had external speakers – it was a wonderful bit of technology and was in almost continuous service for more than 30 years.  The first record I remember listening to on it was “Sylvia’s Mother” by Dr Hook and the Medicine Show.

Of course some people had access to Top of the Pops on TV but not in our one-TV-Chanel house. RTE 2 did re-broadcast TOTP but that was from 1978.  But even if you did have access to TOTP it was very mainstream and the taste in music rarely aligned with what Cecil played in the Grove.

It is also worth noting that there were virtually no concerts by big acts in Dublin partly due to the situation in Northern Ireland but also a lack of venues other than concert halls and the boxing stadium – now that was a dump! Of course events like Slane and The Electric Picnic were long in the future.

So to go to the Grove, and hear the cornucopia of music that Cecil played was like going to another universe. Of course the music was loud but the quality was good – certainly as I remember it. Of course we wouldn’t always know the bands he played but if you liked something you’d find out what it was - often by asking Cecil.

The Grove served another purpose, maybe its main raison d’etre – meeting the opposite sex. And in this respect for many it was a kind of exquisite torture chamber.  Most teenagers of that era were painfully shy and virtually all of Grove attendees in the early 70’s went to unisex schools run by priests, nuns and brothers. So we rarely got the chance to talk to a girl or boy that wasn’t family or a brother or sister of a friend. In my case there were only a few girls I knew outside of cousins and they were sisters of friends. And maybe it was just me there seemed to be something “off” about fancying your friend’s sister. 

I had joined the Legion of Mary in or around 1970 with the sole aim of meeting girls – there was no other avenue for this. We were lucky that the Legion we joined was run by a very cool priest called Fr Milligan I think. He used to organise small concerts at which we sang and the Legion meetings were more like Youth Club meetings than religious gatherings.  Father Milligan eventually left the priesthood and I believe he married.

But The Grove was the real thing.  When I say The Grove was torture, it was for me – and I suspect for others too. I wasn’t bad looking but I didn’t know that at the time. I would often go to The Grove and spend the night trying to pluck up the courage to ask a girl to dance. I’d often come away not having asked anyone, telling myself I didn’t see anyone I fancied but that was a lie – I was just too shy. And most of us in those days were in the same boat. I certainly know my male friends usually struck out and around 11 would head home defeated.

I wasn’t much of a dancer back then – not much now either. In fact I think most young men, and many young women, back then weren’t. The fast sets were usually a mass of bodies moving in time to the music will no real “moves”. If you look at old footage from those years of Top of the Pops you’ll get the idea. When I see my nephews at weddings and other family events I am in awe of their dancing abilities.
 

So I for one avoided the fast sets. The problem with the slow sets was that the floor usually cleared leaving couples already dating – we didn’t use that word back then we referred to it is going out with someone. So the technique I developed was to try to wait until the last song of a fast set and then ask a girl I liked. In order to improve the chances of getting a positive response you would try to make eye contact before actually asking and try to assess your chances.

After some limited success I finally hit the jackpot. I saw this girl that I thought was the most beautiful ever. Unfortunately she left the dance area with her friend just as I was about to pick up the courage to ask her. I was very crestfallen and scanned the room for an alternative but all the other girls look dull and uninteresting in comparison. Then, to my joy, she came back into the room. I asked her and she said yes. We did a few moves to the fast set song and then the slow set came on. Others have said this was a chance for boys and girls to become a more intimate and it was. But it also meant you could talk. I still remember how easy it was to talk to her, I usually got tongue tied around girls I liked, and at the end of the night we agreed to meet at The Grove the next week.

She was wonderful and we were besotted with each other. We used to talk on the phone hor three hours or more and even wrote letters evne thought she lived in Raheny and I in Clontarf. We went out together for a year and a half after meeting in the Grove.

Having girlfriend going to The Grove moved you into another category, almost celebrity status. It meant above all that you went there not having to go through the potential shame of striking out.

So what music do I remember. 

First has to be Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon in particular the tracks Time and Brain Damage.  

When I was going out with the girl mentioned above, we would get to The Grove as early as possible and we found a magic world there. I think it was probably about 7:30 and very few people would be there at that time. The dance floor was bathed in a red light, as I remember it, and around the sides were benches with tatty fake leather, often torn, with the padding showing, that you could sit on together. Cecil played Dark Side of the Moon at that time of the evening. Margaret and I had time together before the crowds came in and the music took us to another plane. It was also cool to be there early as we got to greet friends as they came in. Even today when I hear Dark Side of the Moon I am transported right back to that wonderful place.

Other music
“Knights in White Satin” by The Moody Blues. I remember this particularly because of my own satin shirt. In 1972 and 1973 I had a summer job in a trendy, trendy for 70’s Dublin that is, shop in Talbot Street where we sold cool clothes like flared jeans and Ben Sherman shirts. Among the items I bought was a white satin shirt. In 1974 I got a job as a lifeguard, first at Rush and then at Seapoint. So with my lifeguard’s suntan and white satin shirt I stood out and this Moody Blues song reminds me of that shirt.

“Satisfaction” by The Rolling Stones In 2025 this might seem unremarkable but in 1973 having it played was unusual.  “Satisfaction” was first released in 1965 and today it has, rightly, become a classic of the era that in fact now seems to transcend time. But for us at that time any music more than a year or two old was out of date. I distinctly remember talking to friends about “Satisfaction” and marvelling that it was eight years old!  I contrast this with today when so many young people know of and listen to music from even 50 years ago.  The number of young people who are Pink Floyd fans, for example, is notable. 
 

“Je t’aime” by Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin.  This was the ultimate risqué and ultimate slow set song. It is basically some wonderful music, French lyrics and a woman having an orgasm. It was rumoured that this was orgasm real but that is denied by Jane Birkin. It is still a great piece and still sexy.
 

“The Air That I Breathe” by the Hollies. Another great slow-set number and one I associate with one girl in particular. 

“Port of Amsterdam” by David Bowie. I was not a big Bowie fan but this is an incredible tortured performance and in the smoky low light of The Grove it mesmerised us.  It was raunchy and the story and the words would not have been heard on RTE.  Much later I was to find this was written by the great Jacques Brel. I am listening to it now and it still gives me goose bumps. 
 

“Whisky in the Jar” by Thin Lizzy.  This was mind blowing in 1973. It is of course a traditional tune but we had only heard it before in stultifyingly boring versions – at least to us. To have this played by a real rock band, and local heroes at that, it was to usher us into a new world – one where traditional music might have something for us after all.

“Stairway to Heaven” by Led Zeppelin. Not a band I was very familiar with but this track takes me back to The Grove. Another slow set standard but because of its length it meant maybe another song missed out  -there were usually three songs in  a slow set as I recall.

“Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door” by Bob Dylan. I am stretching a little here as I can’t be 100% sure this was from The Grove but I am pretty sure it was. It did, after all, come out in 1973 so it is a likely candidate

“Waterloo” by Abba.  Now this might seem like a strange choice since The Grove clientele would have despised The Eurovision and all it produced. But Cecil played this as a piss-take.  I distinctly remember the look of shock and disgust when it came on and the slow realisation that Cecil was poking fun at Abba. People bought in to the joke and I have a memory that he played it more than once as it induced exaggerated dancing. I seem to recall Cecil did a few other piss-take numbers like The Bay City Rollers

Above are the tracks that I remember from The Grove. There are many more that might have been played but I can’t be certain – it is 50 years ago after all. I think Cecil played some Beatles music but nothing comes to mind. And I am sure The Rolling Stones featured, other that “Satisfaction” mentioned above but again I can’t recall anything.

So that’s it. My memories of The Grove from 1973 to 1975 – and it was a joy to write this. Looking back from a world of the Internet, social media, mobile phones, and instant access to any music, the 70’s might seem deprived or primitive. But I suggest it was the opposite. Because music was hard to access and the existence of a place like The Grove and a person like Cecil, the music featured large in our lives and our growth. 

Thank you Cecil and thanks to all the anonymous people we don’t know who were behind the creation of a special place, a special time and the creators of special memories.

And thanks to Fintan Carney for prompting these wonderful memories. For a brief period I was back there as the guy with the sun-tan in a white satin shirt.

© Joe Kearns, October 2025