Putting his best foot forward

Nic Gareiss will dance in a house in Cork at a Quarter Block Party event to mark the infamous Dance Halls Act, which brought state interference into people’s leisure pursuits, writes Marjorie Brennan

THE 1930s were a heady time in Ireland politically and culturally, with the nascent Free State struggling to assert itself. It was also a time when morality was strictly policed and monitored by both Church and State.