‘Is it not time you came to my room?’: New messages reveal how parents and judges combined to fix contests in sex scandal rocking the world of Irish dance
- Bombshell new messages reveal how parents and judges allegedly combined to fix Irish dancing contests
- Up to 12 Irish dance teachers and judges are accused of colluding to award podium finishes to certain pupils
- Some dancing competitors were as young as five years old, but most are children and teenagers
- An Coimisiún Le Rincí Gaelacha is investigating the scandal amid a massive political storm rocking Ireland
Bombshell new messages reveal how parents and judges allegedly combined to fix contests as the world of Irish dancing is rocked by shocking claims of bribes, sexual favours and corruption in what has been dubbed a ‘Feis fixing’ scandal.
Up to a dozen Irish dance teachers and judges stand accused of colluding to award podium finishes to certain pupils in the All-Ireland Championships and qualifying rounds after a US-based whistleblower leaked texts and WhatsApp conversations to the press.
Some dancing competitors who took to the stage were as young as five years old, but most are children and teenagers.
The scandal has sparked a massive political storm, with An Coimisiún Le Rincí Gaelacha, the organiser of the competitions, appointing a former Court of Appeal judge to investigate, while Tánaiste Leo Varadkar has warned the Government may also intervene as the saga risks ‘reputational damage’ for Ireland.
It has now emerged that some of the parents of the dancers, who will have paid tens of thousands of euro on costumes, dance lessons and travel from all over the world to enter them into the contests, also allegedly sought to fix votes.
A judge gets a WhatsApp message from the owner of an Irish dancing school in America: ‘Hey, how’s it going? Do you know who’s on [name of teenage dancer].’
He then gives the judge the dancer’s competition number, which she must wear on the front of her costume, like all dancers. The judge tips him off about the names of all the judges on the dancer’s panel. ‘Holy duck, that is the panel from hell. F***,’ he writes back.
The judge tells him, ‘Oh… I know. I was concerned!!!!!!’
But the judge appears to have worked some magic – the teen came first in her class, beating dozens of dancers. Afterwards, the teacher tells the judge he knows of one other judge who was trying to mark down his pupil.
Text messages between teachers whose pupils were competing in an Irish dancing championship and judges appear to show them fixing places in the contest – including in return for sexual favours
Up to a dozen Irish dance teachers and judges stand accused of colluding to award podium finishes to certain pupils in the All-Ireland Championships and qualifying rounds after a US-based whistleblower leaked texts and WhatsApp conversations to the press (file image of Irish dancers)
Some dancing competitors who took to the stage were as young as five years old (file image)
Another judge, he claimed, had his pupil ‘like 5 marks ahead going into the set’ but the negative judge, who has an interest in another American dancing school, is ‘a bad f***’ who wanted to mark down his dancer, just to damage the teacher and his dancing school.
‘He realised that [teenage dancer from another American dance school] was not in the running so he had to pull [another dancer] from 4th to 1st because he realised [another judge] had her 1st. Meanwhile, everyone else dropped her from the set.’
The judge, who is constantly feeding the teacher information, insists the conspiracy the teacher envisioned ‘didn’t happen’. Still, with a first place in the bag, the teacher wants more favours. ‘How is it going part timer?’ he jokes. ‘Thanks for today. Do you know what you are on tomorrow? Begging if you are on [name of another pupil] to do what you can. Xxx.’
Texts such as this one appear to show teachers at Irish dance school colluding with judges to have favourable panels deciding on contests involving their pupils
The judge writes back: ‘I know’.
This other dancer came second in her competition, again beating off dozens of others. By matching the names on the hundreds of leaked WhatsApp messages obtained by the Irish Daily Mail with the eventual placement of each dancer, it is possible to see how some dancers were bumped up the list, and how deserving dancers lost out to the fix.
Another teacher, based in the south of England, also contacted a judge during the same All-Ireland competition. ‘Hi love… hope you are ok and enjoying it a little bit! I’m thinking of you xx.
‘I have [pupil’s name] tomorrow u18 [dancer’s competition number]… appreciate anything you can do. Thank you x.’ That gets a thumbs up emoticon from the judge. The dancer placed fifth in the competition, with many dozens of dancers placed behind her.
After the competition, the teacher thanks the judge. ‘Thank you so much xxxxxxx. Delighted,’ she writes.
Another Scotland-based teacher appears to have a years-long sexual relationship with a judge, while asking for a fix for dozens of students, including his daughter.
For his daughter, he passes on her competition number and asks the judge to do ‘the best you can do’ with a shopping list of where he wants his other dancers to place – ‘top 3’, ‘First’ ‘Top 5’.
Two days later, during the same competition, he tells the judge: ‘Is it not time you came to my room?’ The judge replies: ‘Really?’ and the teacher replies: ‘Yes, really. Since I’m going home today!!!’
At another competition after that, while asking the judge to fix it for his dancers, he asks the judge ‘how’s your p***y?’ He also has another list of dancers he wants bumped up. ‘I gave you a 100 today. That’s your quota up for the next week,’ the judge writes.
A few days later, at the same competition, he tells the judge he wants them in his hotel room.
‘Are you coming because I am drunk and so horny,’ he writes.
The Mail has sought comment from all of the Irish dancing teachers referenced in this article.
Sinn Féin TD for Louth Imelda Munster has written to the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Culture, Arts, Tourism, Sports and Media asking that the matter of so-called ‘feis-fixing’ is discussed at their meeting next week.
Leaked text messages have now been passed on from a whistleblower on the US East Coast to an investigation in Ireland, which has been ordered by deputy PM Leo Varadkar
Deputy Munster, a member of the Committee, said: ‘I am glad to see that there will be an investigation into this. However, we need CLRG to provide more information around the terms of reference of that investigation as, at the moment, the detail is very scant.’
In a letter to its membership yesterday, An Coimisiún Le Rincí Gaelacha (CLRG) wrote: ‘These allegations, which were leaked initially on social media and picked up by mainstream media, ar’e causing untold upset and distress right throughout the dancing world with calls for immediate sanctions on the alleged perpetrators.’
They reminded their members that they ‘have policies and procedures in place for dealing with such matters which are available for all to see in the disciplinary policy under the ‘Rules’ section on the website’.
‘Please be mindful that any attempt to short-circuit the established procedures could seriously jeopardise the ongoing investigation and any disciplinary findings that arise. Your ongoing patience while due process is followed is appreciated.’
The CLRG said that in July its ethics committee received these allegations, with supporting documentation, of several grievous breaches of their code of conduct. ‘Such unethical behaviour cannot and will not be tolerated by this organisation.’
Revealed: Parents pay THOUSANDS for dresses which are worn for no more than a year
By Katherine Lawton and Olivia Dean for the Irish Daily Mail
With Irish dance costume prices starting close to €1,000, dressing for a feis is an expensive business.
Finding an Irish dance dress off-the-rack is rare: the vast majority of competitors will have a class dress, sharing a design with the rest of their school, and a ‘solo dress’, a unique, handmade frock in velvet, satin and crystal, with traditional Celtic embroidery, a matching headdress and shawl.
This bling dress starts at €600 for an eight-year-old girl
It is an unspoken rule that no one solo dress can be worn by the same dancer for more than a year. For top-level competitors, a rotation of handmade dresses will be on hand for each different championship.
The resale market, one dressmaker told the Irish Daily Mail, is strong, given that each dress is handmade to top quality and never worn by any one dancer for very long.
But for parents looking for a bargain, a dress that cost €2,500 new – a top of the range bespoke order for a 16-year-old girl, the dressmaker says – will still set you back at least €1,800 secondhand.
The designs shown on this page are from Doire Dress Designs in Derry, with the black and white jewelled ensemble costing €600 for an eight-year-old and rising to €900 for a 15-year-old.
But another collection – the platinum range – modelled by the girl wearing a navy bow – costs €800 for an eight-year-old child and climbs to €1,800 for a 15-year-old.
One dressmaker, who wished to remain anonymous, compared her dresses to the like of haute couture designer Christian Dior.
Based in Ireland, she makes dresses for girls aged eight to 16, and says she aims for the perfect fit on the perfect dress for every child. Prices for bespoke designs start at €1,300. Each dress takes six to eight weeks to make, and is constructed by hand by highly skilled workers.
Dresses used to be simpler, she says. When she herself performed, competitions took place on the small stages of parish halls, with girls wearing skirts and blouses.
Heavy, embroidered velvet dresses came only when one reached the upper echelons of competing.
Nowadays – in the wake of Riverdance – the extravaganza has become more popular: stages are bigger, and bigger dresses are needed to fill them. Skirts are shorter, bodices are tighter, colours brighter, crystals abound.
Hundreds of diamantes are sewn on by hand. The platinum range dress ranges from €800 to €1,800
The dressmaker calls the process ‘crystallising’, as hundreds, if not thousands, of diamantés and sequins are hand-sewn, one by one, onto each dress.
The laborious process takes two or three days.
Each dressmaker who spoke to the Mail said they were disgusted by the CLRG corruption scandal and did not want to be associated by name.
‘We make a big fuss – we want the day a child gets their dress to be special,’ one said.
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