An Coimisiún Le Rincí Gaelacha Information

The body first met in 1927 as a Commission of Enquiry and in 1930 actually met as an authority with the mandate to implement its own recommendations. Having produced a report after almost two years of deliberations Conradh na Gaeilge appointed that same body of people as an authority with a mandate to set about implementing it's recommendations. Tomás ó Faircheallaigh, who was President of An Coimisiún for some 25 years up to his death in 2004, was the last surviving member of that original commission. In the today's world of Irish Dancing, it is hard to imagine what it must have been like in the nineteen-thirties. It was An Coimisiún which first established a standard for teachers, and later for adjudicators, of Irish dancing, published a handbook of Céilí dances, and established Oireachtas an Rince, as it was then known, as a separate event. The All Ireland Irish Dancing Championships continue to occupy a special place in the hearts of all those involved in the promotion of our Irish Step dancing, Ceili and Figure Dancing. So many of the things we take for granted, like the international dimension of Irish Dancing, with nine Regional Councils overseeing a vibrant Irish dancing scene in Ireland and Britain and organisations such as the I.D.T.A.N.A. in North America, R.T.M.E. in Mainland Europe, A.I.D.A. in Australia and T.I.D.A.N.Z. in New Zealand carrying on the work of promoting Irish Dancing, could not have happened without the forethought and dedication of those early pioneering members of An Coimisiun le Rinci Gaelacha. The influence of An Coimisiún continues to spread throughout all five continents, and we now have active teachers of Irish Dancing not only in countries where the traditional Irish diaspora settled, Great Britain, North America, and Australasia, but also throughout continental Europe, in South Africa and as far away as South America. There can be no doubt that the establishment of Oireachtas Rince na Cruinne, the World Irish Dancing Championships, in 1970 was the most important ...