| Oireachtas Rince na hEorpa
 With John
Egan
Vienna, city of my dreams. So sang the famous Austrian tenor Richard
Tauber over 70 years ago. But little did he dream that one day his beloved
capital city would play host to Oireachtas Rince na hEorpa, the qualifying
feis for mainland Europeans who wished to become eligible to compete in
the World Championships in Irish dancing to be held in Glasgow this Easter.
The architecturally splendid Vienna, a truly international capital of
music and dance, was indeed a dream location in which dancers from Austria,
Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Holland, Hungary, Italy, Norway, Poland,
Russia and Switzerland came together to stage a truly memorable event
that excelled in its organisation and style. A few competitors also travelled
to Vienna from England and Ireland because they wanted to be among this
internationally diverse gathering whose common interest in Irish dancing
developed mainly from its exposure to a mass television audience when
Michael Flatley and Jean Butler flung their interval magic at the Eurovision
audience assembled in Dublin in 1994; an audience whose rapturous standing
ovation would ripple around Europe and the world to ensure that the art
would undergo a paradigm shift from merely being part of a minority culture
of a small nation of people on the western seaboard of Europe, to become
as well known as ballet or ballroom and just as widely practised.
 Irish dancing
is no longer just an aspect of the Irish Diaspora that wants to cling
to all semblances of its cultural identity in the chosen countries of
traditional migration; it has now also reached out to the diverse cultures
and countries of all continents even where there was no tradition of Irish
migration, if indeed there is such a place. Arguably this aspect of our
culture has, above all else, promoted a greater awareness and curiosity
around the world of the island of Ireland and its people; even more so
than the disproportionate contribution of its playwrights, poets and authors
to English literature.
But why was Vienna chosen for this prestigious event? Detailed planning
for the oireachtas fell to a small committee of four tireless teachers
which included Harald Habermayer who, with his wife Ursula, had started
up the Irish Dance Center Vienna about five years ago. Harald and his
committee colleagues approached the offices of the Viennese mayors and
secured their sponsorship for the event, including the provision of a
suitable public building, Haus der Begegnung, Floridsdorf. And the rest
as they say is history. Indeed the local mayor Heinz Lehner, as well as
the chairman of An Coimisiún Séamus Ó Sé,
and members of the Irish Embassy and Irish Tourism Board attended the
opening ceremony and greeted more than 400 dancers from schools throughout
Europe.
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