‘The Last Dance’: Birr nightclub’s closure prompts new film

By Rebekah O'Reilly

Local filmmakers Nicky Larkin and Gary Hoctor are setting out to revisit 40 years of Melba's memories, after the Birr nightclub closed its doors in May of this year.

The pair have worked together with the organisers of Birr Vintage Week & Arts Festival and the Hello Camera video studio to interview locals about their memories of visits to the Offaly nightspot.

The interviews are for a documentary, titled 'The Last Dance', which aims to capture the fun, friendship, and shenanigans which were the key to the magic of Melba's.

"We're making a documentary looking at the legacy of Melba's, and what a void it leaves in the community, as the last nightclub in Offaly closes its doors forever," said Nicky, a BAFTA member and filmmaker who hails from the Offaly town.

A trailer documenting the final night of fun in Melba's was shared to Nicky's social media pages, opening with a quote from The Lonely Planet: "The popular club gives a fine insight into the potato-and-stout fuelled mating habits of rural Ireland".

Explaining the reasoning behind the film, Gary said it's about documenting what was a social meeting point for many people across Offaly and Tipperary, and to explore what is coming to replace those lost social spaces.

"It was a place of celebration," Gary said. "With Vintage Week coming up, we thought people might like to come together and talk about he good old days of the nightclub and the effect it had on the community.

"The bigger picture was the stories you hear, not just in Birr, but all across the country and in the UK as well, of nightclubs closing at a rate of knots. My parents' generations has dancehalls with bands, and people socialised to a large extent back then, and then disco and nightclubs took over. But that's definitely come to an end now, and you have to wonder, what is coming next?"

To date, the filmmakers have heard from a largely male base of interviewees, and would like to encourage more women to come forward with their memories and experiences from Melba's.

"We hope it will document those fond memories from the 80's and 90's, and we really would like to have a more balanced group of interviewees," Gary said. "In the past, you would have up to 1,000 between the downstairs of Dooley's Hotel and then upstairs in Melba's on any given night."

He added: "If we don't document those stories, they are lost to time. We'd love to have people go on camera and to keep a record of what it was like to go to the nightclub in Birr."