United Irish Societies Grand Picnic: Protectory for Destitute Children Benefit

“[T]here were enough present at eleven o’clock [a.m.] to form a few sets, and the ball opened at that hour, with the grand promenade. . . . Many fine and apparently unconscious displays of that interesting and oft written member of female beauty, the ankle, was made. . . . At three in the afternoon both platforms were crowded, and fully five thousand persons scattered throughout the grounds.  Fiddlers in every nook and corner where a tree afforded shelter, playing the bow in right good earnest, while many feet beat time to the tunes of ‘Garryowen to Glory,’ ‘The Rocky Road to Dublin,’ and many other well known and oft danced jigs.  The bagpipes, too, were there, and swelled the woods with Celtic national airs.”