Colm takes World Irish Dancing title for third time

A Salthill teen danced his way to the top of the World at the weekend – for the third time.

Colm Conneely’s nimble feet impressed the seven judges at the World Irish Dancing Championships in Glasgow, where he scooped top prize in the U20 category.

The 19-years-old from Whitestrand Road first won the Worlds in 2007 and he emulated that feat in 2015.

On Easter Saturday at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in Glasgow, Colm retained his crown to become world champion again.

“I’m happy out,” said Colm yesterday after returning to Galway with his ‘Globe’ trophy. “I’m more relieved in a way but yeah, I’m happy out.”

Colm was one of 30 dancers from all over the World who qualified to take part in this category of the championships. After two rounds of heavy and light sets, the judges whittled the field down to 10 dancers who then had a set-dance dance-off.

During the early rounds four of the judges gave Colm top-marks – 100 out of 100 for his flawless performance. And in the set-dance, he wowed the judges again with a heavy dance to the Four Masters music, which he performed at ‘speed 76’.

“It’s slow music but fast to dance to. It’s a slow, long set. It ends up very fast and people can find it difficult to keep up with and I had to have it well practised,” he said.

For more on Colm’s story, see this week’s Galway City Tribune