An award-winning Irish dancer well known for his lively busking on Lincoln High Street is appealing for financial support to fund the cost of classes at his dance school.
Tom, 33, was born in Lincoln and went to St Peter and St Paul School, but left at aged 16 to go on tour with an Irish dance troupe before moving to Dublin. By the time he left Ireland he was running most of the Irish dance and music gigs in the city.
Not only has Tom toured the world and competed at the highest level of Irish dancing, but he has also performed for FIFA, Pfizer and the Saudi royal family.
Students of the Conroy Irish Dance Academy performing to the public in 2019.
Tom tried to set up Conroy School of Irish Dance in 2019 and relied on donations from family and friends.
He made no profit due to the small numbers of people attending classes and the large cost of the hall hire.
However, he is determined to use his passion for teaching dancing to help more children with an organised timetable of lessons once lockdown has eased.
Irish dance teachers at the Academy, Tom and Sinead.
Prior to lockdown, Tom was regularly busking long Lincoln’s High Street, but he was forced to stop doing this due to the pandemic.
For the last year, Tom has instead been doing weekly virtual busking via his Facebook page, as well as teaching students via Zoom lessons to generate some income.
Once lockdown and coronavirus restrictions end, classes will be held at the Rhythm in Movement Academy on Clayton Road in Lincoln for people of all ages and abilities. Tom is also available to book for shows and events.
Classes are priced at £7 per class – for further information about booking and performances, or if you can provide financial support, contact Tom on 07432035949.
The Conroy Irish Dance Academy in Lincoln offers dance classes for all levels of dancers, from very beginner to championship.
Tom said: “As we come out of lockdown, involving kids in social and physical activities is going to be so important and now seems like the perfect opportunity to spread the word about the Irish dance classes we can offer.
“Irish dance is appealing to both boys and girls and it has had a huge surge in popularity during the lockdown thanks to dancers sharing videos of themselves via platforms such as TikTok, which have then been seen by thousands of people.
“After such a difficult year for everybody, we’re really looking forward to opening the doors to our dance school and starting up our in-person Irish dance classes.”
He added: “Sadly though, these classes and the running of them do come at a cost – and because we want to teach children who may not be able to afford the classes or dance shoes, we really need some support to make sure these classes are inclusive and can go ahead.”
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A 38-year-old man from a North Lincolnshire village charged with murder will face an eight-day trial later this year.
Emergency services were called at 4.23am on Saturday, July 2 to reports that a man was seriously injured on South Parade in central Doncaster.
The 28-year-old victim was taken to hospital but was sadly pronounced dead a short time later.
A post-mortem examination found that he died of injuries to his head, chest and abdomen.
Formal identification of the victim is yet to take place, South Yorkshire Police said earlier this week.
Steven Ling, 38, of Park Drain, Westwoodside in North Lincolnshire, has been charged with murder and was remanded in custody to appear at Doncaster Magistrates Court on Monday, July 4.
Ling later appeared at Sheffield Crown Court on Tuesday, July 5 for a plea and trial preparation hearing.
No pleas were entered during the hearing, but an eight-day trial was set for November 28, 2022. Ling has now been remanded into custody until the next hearing.
The Lincolnite went on a ride-along with a Lincolnshire Police officer from the force’s Roads Policing Unit (RPU), which aims to disrupt criminals’ use of the roads and reduce the number of serious and fatal accidents.
The team will support the county response including local policing, neighbourhood policing and criminal investigation too.
Operations first began in Grantham in January this year and started in Louth earlier this week with a sergeant and nine PCs based in both locations.
The Lincolnite went out on a ride-along with PC Rich Precious from Lincolnshire Police’s Roads Policing Unit. | Photo: Steve Smailes for The Lincolnite
PC Rich Precious has been a police officer for 22 years after joining the force in 2000 and he recently rejoined the Roads Policing Unit, working out of Louth.
PC Precious, who also previously worked as a family liaison officer for road deaths for 16 years, took The Lincolnite out in his police car to the A1 up to Colsteworth and then back to Grantham. He described that particular area as “one of the main arterial routes that goes through Lincolnshire”.
PC Rich Precious driving down the A1 up to Colsterworth. | Photo: Steve Smailes for The Lincolnite
Speaking about the new Roads Policing Unit, he said: “It’s intelligence led policing, it’s targeted policing in areas that have been underrepresented in terms of police presence, on the roads certainly, over a number of years.
“We’re hoping that the development of this unit will help address that balance, and look towards using the ANPR system to prevent criminals’ use of the road, and to identify key areas or routes where there’s a high percentage of people killed or seriously injured on the road, what we commonly refer to as KSI.
PC Precious is helping to keep the roads safer in Lincolnshire. | Photo: Steve Smailes for The Lincolnite
When asked if he thinks the new team will help reduce the number of serious and fatal accidents in the county, he added: “That’s what the the unit designed for. Sadly, in Lincolnshire our road network does seem to incur a number of those KSI accidents year on year, and we need to reduce that.
“I’ve worked additionally in my roles as a family liaison officer on road death for 16 years, so I’ve seen first hand the impact that road death has on families and victims families.
“I know it’s important that we try and reduce those because, it’s very sad to see how a fatal road traffic collision can affect a family and the victims of that family.”
Marc Gee, Inspector for Lincolnshire Police’s Roads Policing Unit. | Photo: Steve Smailes for The Lincolnite
Marc Gee, Inspector for the Roads Policing Unit, told The Lincolnite: “Every day there will be officers on duty from both teams and they’ll cover the whole county or the county’s roads.
“Eventually, we’ll have nine police cars and we’ve got six motorbikes. We’ll be utilising them with as many officers as we can every day basically to make our roads safer and enforce against the criminals who feel like it’s okay to come into the county and use our road for criminal purposes.”
Lincolnshire’s Police and Crime Commissioner Marc Jones at the launch of the force’s Roads Policing Unit. | Photo: Steve Smailes for The Lincolnite
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