The crossroads dance was a type of social event popular in Ireland up to the mid-20th century, in which people would congregate at the large cleared space of a crossroads to dance.
[2] In the early 1930s, the wooden platforms at crossroads became the focus of standoffs and faction fights between Fianna Fáil and the Blueshirts, with some destroyed by arson.
[3] The phrase "comely maidens dancing at the crossroads", a misquotation attributed to Éamon De Valera's 1943 Patrick's Day radio broadcast, has become shorthand for a maudlin yearning for a vanished Irish rural idyll.
[3] The name of John Waters' 1991 memoir Jiving at the Crossroads was a metaphor for Fianna Fáil's continuing cultural relevance in rural Ireland, with Irish dance replaced by jive.
[4] The 1996 Irish chart-topping song "Dancing at the Crossroads" anticipated Wexford's victory in that year's All-Ireland hurling final.