The UK times tells us that in Ireland, the recession is allowing good clean fun on skates to make a comeback, as empty warehouses get retrofitted as roller rinks:

Unpack the legwarmers and rustle up the Day-Glo gear. The 1980s roller disco is back, with rinks opening up all around Ireland almost 30 years after the craze was at its height. Recession-hit car showrooms and industrial ware-houses are being transformed into roller rinks, using glitter balls and neon lights, like the one featured in the 1980 film Xanadu. Last weekend, Spin Roller Disco opened in the former Nissan headquarters on the Long Mile Road in Dublin. The company has been running another venue in an industrial building in Blanchardstown for the past two months.

Long Mile Road, Eight Mile Road… this makes me think of Detroit, but the image in my head if they decide to start skating in the empty factories in the DTW is more like Rollerball. The one with James Caan, not that crappy remake that had LL Cool J in it. Anyway, if you drop the equivalent of US $20-something, you can be entertained for three hours,  burn a few calories and maybe even see a few skimpily clad chicks on quads (Skatetown USA had these in proliferation, btw), but if you want this to work in the US you’re going to have to offer the booze.

For €15, customers can skate to music played by a DJ for three hours from 7.30pm in an alcohol-free environment. As well as nightly discos, there are sessions during the day, four times a week.

Colette Fusco, managing director of Spin Roller Disco, said the venue is attracting all ages. “We have kids from four years of age skating, up to people of 72. It’s great for fitness. You can burn up to 600 calories an hour. People have been leaving gyms to join us regularly. You move every muscle in your body so it’s like a workout.”

Brendan Egan, owner of Roll ’n Bowl in Portlaoise, opened a roller rink six months ago after seeing the phenomenon re-emerge in the UK. Last year, Kate Middleton, Prince William’s girlfriend, organised a charity roller disco in London. Pictures of her dressed in a skimpy sequined top, Day-Glo shorts and legwarmers, lying spread-eagled in her roller skates, appeared in newspapers the next day.

FYI, no position in disco balls, and no inclination to get long Brunswick or anything, but we were shocked to learn Whip It may have actually made a profit, so who knows if this will catch on in the States or not. I mean… you could play a hell of a game of Red Rover on skates in a rink the length of your average vacant strip mall.