On another writing forum recently, we were asked to write about our first 'real' boyfriend. It got me back to thinking of my early teenage Saturday nights, when myself and my friend would go to 'Joey's' in Terenure.

A local disco that was held in the parish hall behind St. Joseph's Church every Saturday night. The fear was always that you mightn't get in. Standing in the queue wondering who the bouncer would be. Fretting that we'd be stopped at the door, but we never were.

I met my first 'real' boyfriend there. His friend had asked my friend up to dance so we just sort of ended up together at the end of the night. Ironically for our two friends it wasn't much more than 'a dance' for them, but we ended up going out together for almost five years, from the tender age of fourteen to nineteen.

And when I say 'going out' we didn't really go anywhere in the early years. We were both just kids in secondary school, studying for our Inter Cert, with little or no money. Our early 'dates' consisted of walks, watching schoolboy football matches, sitting on park benches or on our parents couches, constantly supervised.

So the highlight of the week at the age of fourteen and fifteen, was the disco in Joey's on a Saturday night. Myself and my friend (still is by the way) would spend hours getting ready for the disco. Sometimes we would have been lucky enough to have some money from babysitting, and go into Pennys in Mary Street to buy a new top. Yes even back in the mid 1970's Penny's was King. It was always some type of a cheese cloth top or shirt, teamed up with the regulation Levi jeans. No other jeans would do.

Occassionally we could also afford to splash out on a new eyeshadow or mascara from Woolworths. My friend lived in Dundrum, so she always stayed over on a Saturday night. The two of us in the little single bed in the front bedroom laughing and talking until the small hours of the morning. Remembering the goings on of the night. Whatever drama that may have been, who got off with who, or who had been crying in the toilets over some random boy etc.

Joey's is where I remember dancing the most. Two to three hours more or less of non stop dancing. Sometimes all of us in a circle. Then just the girls together, as the lads would leave the floor in disgust when something that wasn't cool came on. This usually involved The Bay City Rollers or Mud's Tiger feet.

Then there were the slow sets. Lurching, we called it. Do people lurch these days? I haven't heard the word for years. For those of us with boyfriends, swanning around the floor to the likes of 10CC – I'n not in love, Frankie Vallie – My eyes adored you and various other slow dances. Yes you are right. I had it bad! For those that didn't have a boyfriend, sitting on the plastic chairs along the wall pretending that they didn't care whether anyone asked them up or not.

We were always worried about our handbags. In hindsight you would wonder why. It's not as if there was ever anything of value in them. Maybe a pound or two and a hall door key if you were lucky. The bags were sometimes left with a friend who wasn't dancing or alternatively all piled on the floor in the middle of a big circle of people dancing. Often to Status Quo – Rocking all over the world, as the lads would shake their imaginary long hair and play air guitar.

I have so many memories of songs from that time and they always bring me back to that dimly lit church hall. At the end of the night, the DJ would stop playing and suddenly the bright lights would be switched on and everyone headed home. Such innocent times.

On the first night that we met them, myself and my friend let the two lads walk us home, back to my house in Rathgar, they were both from Terenure. We shouldn't have done this because the deal had always been that we would walk down to Murphy's pub and meet up with my parents who would have been there for a few drinks and walk down Highfield Road together. There was no way you would walk down that long dark scary road on your own, even back then.

But that night we broke the rules. The two lads came into the house and we were innocently sitting talking when my Mam and Dad arrived in. Well, for those of you who remember my Dad, he was, for the most part quite placid but when he lost it, he lost it. He went crazy and chased the two lads out of the Grove.

This, in hindsight, is of course, completely understandable but as fourteen year old girls we were mortified and feared that we'd never see either of them again. The shame. We had thought we were so grown up.

But we did meet up again. Not sure how we managed it as we had no house phone and obviously no mobile phones back then. I presume we just met up with them again the following Saturday night. He had a house phone and so a lot of time was spent by me over the next few years, queueing for the phone box.

When we both started working at sixteen we progressed to trips to the cinema, a couple of gigs etc. A memorable one being The Boomtown Rats, playing in the Stella Cinema in Rathmines.

We drifted apart after time. We both wanted completely different things. It was a very messy breakup that involved all of the usual teenage angst.

******

Fast forward to 1978. I had progressed from the breakup, the Bay City Rollers and the local disco. New jobs brought new friends and new experiences. Now it was time for the clubs and pubs in the city centre. We went to The Baggot Inn, the Student dances in UCD and various other venues.

But my favourite was McGonagle's in South King Street. It seemed very sophisticated to me after the church hall. We danced to live bands and to songs by Dire Straits and Santana to name a few. And when they played Gloria Gaynor – I will Survive, I gave it socks. It became my War tune for a while. And it was to be in McGonagle's, a while later, where I met Martin, so everything worked out fine!