Irish dancing body investigated alleged ‘adjudicator corruption’ three years before feis-fixing claims

The world’s largest and oldest governing body for Irish dancing investigated three cases of alleged “adjudicator corruption” three years before allegations of widespread cheating were reported to the organisation.

In July 2022, a dossier purportedly showing evidence of extensive competition fixing was handed in to An Coimisiún Le Rincí Gaelacha (CLRG). The allegations were related to a competition taking place in 2019 but were only submitted to the body in 2022 and later leaked online.

Contained within the dossier were screenshots of text messages appearing to show efforts by dancing instructors to secure high scores for their students from fellow teachers. Originally 12 teachers were implicated in the controversy, but the number later rose to 44.

However, minutes from a CLRG meeting in Dublin in March 2019 show Coiste Faire, the body’s ethics committee which handles complaints, reported 10 “open” and “ongoing” cases under its remit.

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Three of these relate to alleged “adjudicator corruption”, the minutes state, with the remainder being “other cases”.

Asked if these individuals faced disciplinary hearings, a CLRG spokesman said investigations by the committee “may or may not result in a recommendation to proceed to a disciplinary hearing”.

“To ensure fairness, all complaints are handled in a confidential manner with no parties publicly named,” he said.

The past cases have come to light as Sandra Connick, chairwoman of the CLRG – and who is listed as attending the March 2019 meeting as a member of the commission – moved to clarify her remarks that she had only heard “one or two” rumours about cheating before the 2022 revelations.

In an interview with The Irish Times, published on December 2nd, Ms Connick, who took over in May, said: “I can honestly say I wasn’t aware but it is very disappointing.”

She said there were “one or two” rumours about cheating circulating throughout the decades she has been involved in Irish dance, but they were considered just “hearsay”.

[ ‘It won’t be tolerated’ - Irish dancing commission chair on the feis-fixing scandal ]

This week, Ms Connick clarified her remarks in the interview were relating to alleged cheating “on a widespread scale, as was reported to CLRG last July”.

“Like any large organisation there have always been periodic rumours and occasional individual incidents which occur from time to time,” she said.

“The allegations of last year were of an entirely different magnitude and this is what has driven me to get involved again. We can’t and won’t tolerate that and that’s what we’re working very hard to address.”

In all, 44 individuals are due to face disciplinary hearings in relation to alleged feis-fixing. Three have been completed to date, with a further 10 books of evidence due to be handed out “shortly”.

It is envisaged all of the hearings will be completed by the middle of next year, at which point the CLRG said it will publicly disclose the outcomes.

The body has also sought to make changes to ensure there will be no further cases of cheating. Some of these include a change to the way scoring works, sequestering judges from members of the public, and not publishing dancers’ numbers in advance.

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