FROM THE ARCHIVES:You'd never know who you'd meet at an Irish Times staff dance in the 1940s, as editor Bertie Smyllie recorded in this "Irishman's Diary".
- JOE JOYCE
WHY I went to the Irish TimesStaff Club Dance in Clery's Ballroom the other night I do not know. I have passed the stage at which dancing interested me, if it really ever did, and besides, I was not built to shine as a "jitterbug". Yet I went, and I must say that I thoroughly enjoyed it all.
At such functions, it always is the people rather than the dancing that interest me. And there were some very interesting folk at this particular "hop". I could scarcely believe my eyes when I saw Professor Erwin Schrödinger romping about in the " Walls of Limerick" – or was it the " Waves of Troy"? I just don't know – but there the great man was, and dancing remarkably well.
Dr Schrödinger probably is the most famous man in the world in his own particular line, which has mighty little to do with Terpsichore. They tell me that in some respects he represent a distinct advance on Einstein, whom I interviewed many years ago in Berlin on the subject of relativity – I have not quite recovered my mental equilibrium since! – and there is no doubt that he is one of the greatest physicists of this, or any other, age. Yet he Paul Jonesed with the rest of us, as if such a thing as the second Law of Thermodynamics never had been heard of!
I have no reason to suppose that Mr. R. C. Ferguson, of Industry and Commerce, knows much about the higher mathematics, or at any rate of those so high that only the intellectual giants can hope to catch a glimpse of them. Economics is – or should it be “are”? – more in his line, although he has a catholic taste in literature and a thorough knowledge of at least one Continental language.
R. C. Ferguson is one of the best informed and astutest citizens in this country. He has had an unrivalled experience in respect of trade disputes of all kinds, and is an excellent negotiator, who enjoys the confidence of employers and workers alike.
In his leisure moments he plays quite a “sticky” game of golf, with particular annoyance to his opponent in the region of the green.
He also is a member of Myles na gCopaleen’s chess team; but it is as a dancer that he excels, and his prowess in the waltz makes him a popular partner even among the experts.
Then there was Lynn Doyle, that literary and social lusus naturae, who seems to have captured the elixir of life. His humour, as well as his energy, is evergreen, and he adds an almost professional skill in dancing to his many other accomplishments.
Like R. C. Ferguson, Lynn Doyle is an Ulsterman, and a patriotic one at that! He has just recovered from a nasty bout of illness, but nobody who saw him the other night ever would believe that he had had an hour’s indisposition in his life! They breed tough men in the North!
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