A brief history of Dancesport Ireland Ltd.
The Irish DanceSport Federation, the Governing Body for
DanceSport in Ireland, was initially founded in 1937 with the
title 'The Irish Society of Amateur Dancers'. The Hon.
Chairman at its founding was Mr George Begley recently deceased.
George and his wife Madge later became well known as Exhibition
dancers on the International circuit and reached the pinnacle of
their careers in 1953 by winning both British Exhibition
Championships at Blackpool.The pictures on
the right show George and Madge competing in Blackpool in 1953.
In 1958 the Society was re-inaugurated and restyled, as a
limited company by guarantee, under the title 'The Society of
Amateur Ballroom Dancing Ltd'.
In 1974 it was recognised internationally as the Governing Body
for Amateur Competitive Ballroom Dancing in Ireland and accepted
as the sole Irish member of the International Council of Amateur
Dancers, the body which is now known as the International
DanceSport Federation. This is the Governing Body for DanceSport
world-wide and is recognised by and a member of the
International Olympic Council.
In 1992, in line with the emerging trend of distinguishing
between DanceSport,
i.e. competitive Ballroom Dancing, and Social and Medal-Test dancing, the Society was again re-named,
on this occasion to the 'Irish DanceSport Federation'. A
link with the original title is Mr. Barney Meehan who has served
on Council under all three titles.
In its earlier years and indeed until the mid 1980's DanceSport was confined, with a few notable exceptions, to Dublin and the surrounding areas. Since then, the Federation has made great efforts to spread the DanceSport Gospel to other areas of the country, and now has affiliated bodies in each of the four provinces. The affiliates are known by their titles of the Connaught, Leinster, Munster and Ulster DanceSport Boards.They each have the delegated responsibility of looking after the interests of DanceSport in their respective areas.
In 2006,the Leinster Board was disbanded due to lack of members. Dancers in the Leinster area may now become direct members of Irish Dancesport Federation.