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Date Posted: 11:51:48 12/10/24 Tue
Author: Ronan’s email inside
Author Host/IP: syn-024-210-041-052.res.spectrum.com / 24.210.41.52
Subject: It’s not brief
In reply to: 's message, "Can you post the letter?" on 16:56:56 12/07/24 Sat

A chairde,

We recently received a letter from An Cathaoirleach, Sandra Connick, in which she asked us, the Registrants, to submit “positive stories that exemplify transformative moments” that CLRG has had in our lives, in an effort to craft “a comprehensive mission and values framework” for the organization.

My initial reaction was that my 30+ years of dealing with harassment and discrimination at the hands of CLRG Officers has, in fact, been “transformative”; despite the physical and emotional stress I have endured, it has given me the strength and determination to stand up, speak out and call into question the actions of those who abuse their power.

While one would have hoped that the Feis Fixing Scandal brought to light in 2022 would have engendered a sea change in the organization and how it’s officers conduct the business of CLRG, unfortunately, what we have seen is a doubling down of the old M.O. - denial, deflection, discrimination, and disenfranchisement.

Naively, I saw the scandal as an opportunity to shed light on all the malfeasance that has plagued the organization for generations and to call out those responsible; however, I soon discovered the will to conceal the truth from the stakeholders was far stronger than any desire to ‘right the ship’, as it were.

Yet I persisted… and here I am, more than 2 years down the line, writing to inform you that rather than trying to craft a “comprehensive mission & values framework for the future”, the current Membership of CLRG seem determined to persist in the bullying and persecution of those they have qualified as teachers and adjudicators, along with their dancers, most of whom are children.

I apologize for the lack of brevity in what follows, however, I believe it is necessary to provide sufficient information, so you can truly appreciate what has transpired since registration for 2024/2025 closed on August 7th, 2024. While reading, I would like you to bear in mind the long-stated objective of CLRG “to preserve and promote Irish Dancing. Including step dancing, céilí dancing and other team dancing, and also to promote the use of the Irish Language”.

Although An Cathoirleach has delighted in the fact that 90% of last year’s Registrants re-registered for 2024/2025, on August 31st, 2024, the Director of IDTANA - Southern Region, Inc. Mr. P.J. McCafferty - a member of CLRG’s Council of Management - began calling/writing to Members of his Region to remind those who had registered of their teaching colleagues who had not registered and of the rules pertaining to intermittent teaching.

Subsequently, Mr. McCafferty rescinded the Regional Membership of the only CLRG Registrant teaching in one of the Southern Region states, proffering the reason that the Registrant was not physically present at class in the state on a weekly basis and stating that regularly scheduled Zoom classes were not acceptable; however, CLRG can conduct their meetings on Zoom, the outcomes of which affect each and every one of us. The sheer hypocrisy of this is confounded by the fact that Mr. McCafferty does not reside in the Southern Region, nor does he appear in person weekly to teach a class.

A somewhat similar situation occurred in the Mid-America Region. Their Oireachtas syllabus contains a rule that states: “All ADCRGs, TCRGs, and TMRFs in the school must be paid-up members in all three organizations listed above. If not paid-up, the individual will be contacted to complete registration/payment with the appropriate organization(s) and they will be subjected to a $100 fine.”

The Board of the region wrote to several CLRG registered teachers to inform them that as there were teachers teaching in their schools that had not re-registered, their Oireachtas entries would be refused. In one instance a school that had five CLRG registered teachers in 2023/2024, four of whom re-registered for 2024/2025, were being threatened that if they didn’t publicly renounce the unregistered teacher or pay double registration to the region, IDTANA and CLRG, along with a $100.00 fine (over $1,000.00 in total) that their Oireachtas entries would be refused. Who would be most affected by this - the dancers!

This came from a region whose Vice-Regional Director is one of the three CLRG Council of Management Members who ‘forgave’ five of “the 44” because they promised not to do it again… While I believe the region eventually accepted the Oireachtas entries, that does not negate the imperious efforts of the Regional Board to blackmail qualified teachers into re-registering.

My North American colleagues may be aware of a motion I proposed to be considered at the IDTANA Convention earlier this year: “That currently registered IDTANA Members be allowed to maintain their Regional and IDTANA Registration without registering with CLRG”.

There was less than a quarter of the IDTANA membership present for the convention; my motion was to acknowledge the part those absent members play in our North American organization and to protect them in their efforts to promote Irish Dancing - not every teacher/school is focused on competing at ‘majors’. Unfortunately, owing to an hour spent on selecting adjudicators for the 2025 NAIDC, I had to leave before my motion was considered.

Unbeknownst to me at the time, two regions in Australia were considering similar motions, both of which passed: to change their constitutions to allow those qualified by CLRG as a TMRF, TCRG, or ADCRG to register with their region for a nominal fee and support local efforts to promote Irish Dancing, while not registering with AIDA or CLRG.

All nine of the CLRG regions throughout Ireland and the UK have ‘lay members’, non-Registrants who are Regional Council Members, who can vote on regional matters and can be sent forward as Council Representatives to CLRG, making them CLRG Members. In fact, this is how the current chair of An Coiste Faire, Lenny Connell, first became a Member of CLRG.

Australian Registrants of CLRG were recently sent a letter regarding the amendments to the two regional constitutions. The letter was written by the solicitors for CLRG, who have, I believe, been engaged to combine the two contradictory ‘governing documents’ into one, so, one would have hoped they would have a good working knowledge of the organization and how it operates…

The letter states: “The proposed amendments purport to allow non-CLRG members to vote on CLRG matters. We do not need to elaborate as to why this simply cannot be countenanced by the CLRG”

I believe the solicitors are well aware of the difference between CLRG ‘Registrants’ and ‘Members’; Registrants do not get to vote on CLRG matters.

The letter goes on to state: “The proposed amendments purport to allow non-CLRG members to become members of CLRG affiliated entities who hold themselves out as comprising of CLRG members. In this regard, we note that both AIDA and the Branches prominently hold themselves out as being affiliated with CLRG and being comprised of CLRG members”

No CLRG Region anywhere in the world is comprised of “CLRG members”, Regions are comprised of CLRG Registrants, a fact which the powers that be have gone to great lengths to remind us!

The letter then states: “It would illogical (sic), as well as significantly prejudicial and damaging to both CLRG and AIDA, for non-CLRG members to be elected as delegates. It appears that any such persons would be seeking to get the benefits of being affiliated with the CLRG and/or AIDA, without being required to comply with their policies, rules and/or procedures.”

CLRG has positions for 24 Conradh “delegates” i.e. Members, who don’t have to be Registrants, and, as previously stated, the 9 Irish and UK Regions can all put forth a lay member as their CLRG Council Rep. There are and have been many CLRG “Members” over the years who have received “the benefits of being affiliated with the CLRG and/or AIDA, without being required to comply with their policies, rules and/or procedures.” If this is so “illogical” then please, CLRG, rid us of those non-Registrant Members!

The most shocking part of the letter is, I believe, the following statement: “TMRFs, TCRGs, ADCRGs and SDCRGs that are not directly registered with CLRG can no longer act or present themselves as such, nor can they enjoy the rights and privileges of qualification at any event or meeting held under the auspices of CLRG.’

This seems to suggest that the qualifications we achieved were not meritorious but merely purchased, and that failure to continue to pay nullifies the qualifications. This, in my opinion, is tantamount to a protection racket; it is most certainly not the practice of an esteemed examination body such as the Údarás Scrúdaithe pertains to be.

All this should come as no surprise, given the motion recently proposed by James McCutcheon: for those who have not paid dues for more than 2 years to have to re-sit the written portions of the relevant exam. This is the person whose leadership financially crippled CLRG and this is what he deems important, this is what he thinks will improve CLRG and promote Irish Dancing…

The solicitors’ letter further states: “Any Branch that does not require CLRG registration as a prerequisite for membership of that Branch will not be recognised by CLRG. Moreover, CLRG will not recognise any Regional Authority that includes branches that recognise individuals that are not registered with CLRG.”

Does this mean that CLRG is rejecting the 9 Irish and UK Regions?

In my humble opinion, either the solicitors are totally ignorant of how CLRG operates, or they were happy to take the money and write a threatening letter on behalf of CLRG…

Bear in mind, CLRG have informed us, ad nauseam, that they do not have any money to waste, but they will happily flitter away their scarce financial resources to bully and harass paid-up Registrants, the result of which will most likely be less people registering for 2025/2026, and, as was the case in the Mid-America Region, it’s the dancers who are ultimately being threatened with exclusion from feiseanna.

While the threats form CLRG seem quite clear, there is confusion as to whether National/Continental bodies (i.e. IDTANA, AIDA, TIDA) have any jurisdiction over their members. In answer to a query about feis results in North America, the President of the IDTANA, Lisa Petri, stated “The Feis and the NAFC are private organizations… The IDTANA has no authority over the feis or the NAFC”.

Can we take this to mean that schools in North America can now offer feiseanna on an open platform basis? Can our students now compete at “private events” regardless of any affiliations the organizers may have to other Irish Dancing organizations? This would, in fact, be progressive in the efforts to “preserve and promote” Irish Dancing.

Alas, we come to the final CLRG meeting for 2024. Only one of the motions up for consideration deals with the recommendations of the SIA Report - to reduce the number of CLRG Members. The current Membership and Council of Management have had 18 months to turn things around. Following the Feis Fixing scandal, they should, I believe, have focused on Standardized Adjudication and fit-for-purpose Disciplinary Procedures; instead, they have spent more time on identifying what constitutes an identifier!

Mahatma Gandhi said "The future depends on what we do in the present"; so, I ask all 100+ CLRG Members, as you attend the final meeting of the year, what are each and every one of you doing, individually and collectively, to preserve and promote Irish Dancing?

Is mise le meas,

Ronan McCormack ADCRG BG

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