The Tiernan Irish Dancers, a traditional Irish step-dancing school and performance group, was founded in Boise, Idaho and Butte & Helena, Montana in January 2004. The dancers range in age from 5-18 years.

At the Montana Gaelic Festival in Butte, Montana in August, 2003, Trinity Academy of Irish Dance founder and artistic director, Mark Howard fell in love with the "passion to learn" that he discovered in the children out here. After years of requests by Irish dance organizations in the West, Trinity became the first Midwest/Eastern program to answer the much-needed call for elevated consistency, professionalism and expertise.

The name Tiernan (which is a synonym for Trinity and means "God") was chosen and the three-city Tiernan Irish Dance organization was born. Tiernan is now the sister school of Chicago, Milwaukee and Madison's Trinity Academy of Irish Dance. Trinity has won an unprecedented 24 world titles for the United States and is considered to be one of the most widely recongnized Irish Dance programs in the World. www.trinity-dancers.com

Ellen Gahl, TCRG (Chicago) is the lead Tiernan instructor and she flies out to Idaho and Montana monthly to teach classes in all three cities. Ellen is an associate artistic director of the famed touring group, Trinity Irish Dance Company, which tours the U.S., Europe and Japan. She is also the director of Trinity II, the junior touring company. A champion Irish dancer herself, she holds a degree in dance education and leads the Company's "outreach" division teaching this beautiful and powerful art form to the World.