'It's the same as in darts, athletics or boxing'

THE ALTERNATIVE world Irish-dancing championships was opened by President Michael D Higgins yesterday.

An Comhdháil (Congress) World Irish Dance Championships, not to be confused with the World Irish Dancing Championships, is taking place all this week at the Citywest Convention Centre in Dublin.

Some 4,500 competitors from eight countries will be participating.

It is the first time the championships have used “world” in the title: they used to be known as the All Ireland and International Irish Dancing Championships.

The organisers decided to add the “world” because they have competitors from Slovakia, Israel, Argentina and Australia this year.

Spokeswoman Ursula Purcell said they were as entitled to use “world” in the title as the organisers of the championships in Belfast. “It’s the same as in the darts [which has two world championships],, the athletics or the boxing. An Coimisiún goes back to the early 1970s, and Comhdháil has been running its own dancing championships since that time.”

Ms Purcell said the dancing and the competing were the same. “Our only difference is in terms of our rules: we don’t allow our younger competitors to wear make-up.”

Many dancers competing in her championships will travel to Belfast to support some of their friends, but there are no plans for united world championships.

“Both organisations are so big now it would be very difficult to have them all in one,” she said.

“After 40 years, when you have two separate organisations, and both growing, it is not something that we could think about at the moment.”