The official rules for music speeds at feiseanna.
For dancers wishing to compete in Europe, it's pretty important to know what speeds you will have to dance at. Be aware that there are several sets of official speeds being used here.
First of all, there are the official CLRG speeds, as used in Ireland. They are probably also the speeds used in the UK, but don't pin us down on that, we haven't found an official source for the UK speeds yet. When we do, we'll put it on this page as well.
In mainland Europe, there are different speed sets going around, set down by r.t.m.e., the teacher's association affiliated with CLRG. There is no written rulebook, but we are including below the list of tempi from the Mainland European Oireachtas 2010 (which we are guessing are pretty official), but also the speeds that were used at a feis that took place in the same period, and that stated in the syllabus that they were the official speeds as set down in a meeting in 2006. These speeds though, are slightly different from those in the Oireachtas syllabus. Not hugely so, but good to know if you're dancing. We do not know whether these officials speeds have been replaced by the speeds in the Oireachtas list, or whether there were simply special speed rules for the Oireachtas for some reason. Therefore, we include both lists here.
Feis organisers may also revert to the original, Irish, CLRG speeds (as is usually the case in Scandinavia), and state so in their syllabus.
Our advice to the dancers who are competing at feiseanna in Europe would be to always, always check the music speeds in the syllabus, and to practice at different speeds as well - that way, you will not run into surprises. And it's excellent practice anyway. 
As for the setdances: that's a much easier story. The speeds of these dances (the minimum speeds for the modern setdances) are set by a CLRG ruling, and variations are not possible. You can find the full list here.
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