I am inclined to believe that, if the regulations made by the Minister for Local Government and Public Health are adopted generally throughout out the Free State, the numerous people who have been lamenting the decline of the once-popular cross-roads dance may have every reason to rejoice once more.
In recent years there has been a marked tendency to forsake the cross-roads for the permanent dance-hall and the picturehouse - at least, until someone discovered that dance-halls were scandalous places, and invoked the Ministry to put a stop to abuses. Precisely the same thing used to be said about the dances at cross-roads; they kept young people out too late, and led to the practice of "courting" on the way home. If the cross-roads dance comes again into favour as a result of the restrictions now available for local authorities, there will be, I suppose, another outcry against them. Still, if the restrictions on dance-halls merely drive young people back to the hilarity of the cross-roads dance, no harm will have been done.
The Irish Times, April 20th, 1931