The Eurovision Song Contest held at the Gaiety Theatre in Dublin 50 years ago today was the moment Catholic Ireland switched from black and white to colour.
Girls in hot pants were photographed walking down Grafton Street and disporting themselves in the River Club on Bachelors Walk; a riotous after-party went on until 4am in Dublin Castle; and the Cork-born drag queen Danny La Rue held court in the Shelbourne Hotel.
In sharp contrast, the segment between the performances and the voting - the interval that would make Riverdance an international phenomenon two decades later - showed official Ireland as a stylised country of comely maidens playing their harps in Bunratty Castle, real men on horses out hunting and weather-beaten peasants taking snuff.
The Eurovision Song Contest held at the Gaiety Theatre in Dublin 50 years ago today was the moment Catholic Ireland switched from black and white to colour.
Girls in hot pants were photographed walking down Grafton Street and disporting themselves in the River Club on Bachelors Walk; a riotous after-party went on until 4am in Dublin Castle; and the Cork-born drag queen Danny La Rue held court in the Shelbourne Hotel.
In sharp contrast, the segment between the performances and the voting - the interval that would make Riverdance an international phenomenon two decades later - showed official Ireland as a stylised country of comely maidens playing their harps in Bunratty Castle, real men on horses out hunting and weather-beaten peasants taking snuff.