25 February 1999 Edition
Arts Council in funding bias row
by Ned Kelly
The latest Six County Arts Council spending round has been condemned as deeply biased by drama groups across the North. West Belfast-based Aisling Ghearr, one of only two Irish medium drama groups in Ireland, has lost its £10,000 core funding while 67% of the £224,000 increase in the Arts Council's £6.89 million budget has gone to the Ulster Orchestra.
Gearoid O'Cairreallain from Aisling Ghear told An Phoblacht, ``the loss of our core funding must be seen in the context of the BBC axing its Irish language programming and compared to the £93,000 given to the Crescent Arts Centre and £100,000 given to the Old Museum in the city centre.''
O'Cairreallain has also said that the grounds given by the Arts Council for its decision are flawed and said despite their claims that they stopped the grant on the grounds of quality no Arts Council representative had yet been to see any of the six plays produced in the last six months by Aisling Ghearr and that the Arts Council were poorly placed to judge the quality of Irish drama in any case.
Vowing to appeal the decision or, failing that, to take the ``unfair and unjust decision'' to court O'Cairreallain said, ``this goes against the grain of the peace process.''
``This also represents the old fashioned idea that the arts are only safe in certain hands. The Arts Council is comfortable funding cross community drama but they also have to address the issue of redressing the historical discrimination faced by Irish people in the Six Counties.''
Pam Brighton of DubbelJoint, who have consistently premiered plays of international acclaim in West Belfast told An Phoblacht, ``the agenda of the Arts Council has an effect on the access to drama for people living in the working class areas of Nationalist West Belfast. To give such an excessive increase in funds to the Ulster Orchestra which most working class people will find boring demonstrates the elitist mentality of those Unionists and Castle Catholics who are attempting to sidestep the issues thrown up by the last thirty years.''
Sinn Fein Assembly member Barry McElduff slammied the Arts Council attack on the Irish language: ``the Aisling Ghearr group have built up an impressive record. Once again we are seeing the Irish language lose out. Despite a clear commitment contained within the Good Friday Agreement to promote the Irish language, the Arts Council continues to pursue the old agenda of exclusion.''
The latest Six County Arts Council spending round has been condemned as deeply biased by drama groups across the North. West Belfast-based Aisling Ghearr, one of only two Irish medium drama groups in Ireland, has lost its £10,000 core funding while 67% of the £224,000 increase in the Arts Council's £6.89 million budget has gone to the Ulster Orchestra.
Gearoid O'Cairreallain from Aisling Ghear told An Phoblacht, ``the loss of our core funding must be seen in the context of the BBC axing its Irish language programming and compared to the £93,000 given to the Crescent Arts Centre and £100,000 given to the Old Museum in the city centre.''
O'Cairreallain has also said that the grounds given by the Arts Council for its decision are flawed and said despite their claims that they stopped the grant on the grounds of quality no Arts Council representative had yet been to see any of the six plays produced in the last six months by Aisling Ghearr and that the Arts Council were poorly placed to judge the quality of Irish drama in any case.
Vowing to appeal the decision or, failing that, to take the ``unfair and unjust decision'' to court O'Cairreallain said, ``this goes against the grain of the peace process.''
``This also represents the old fashioned idea that the arts are only safe in certain hands. The Arts Council is comfortable funding cross community drama but they also have to address the issue of redressing the historical discrimination faced by Irish people in the Six Counties.''
Pam Brighton of DubbelJoint, who have consistently premiered plays of international acclaim in West Belfast told An Phoblacht, ``the agenda of the Arts Council has an effect on the access to drama for people living in the working class areas of Nationalist West Belfast. To give such an excessive increase in funds to the Ulster Orchestra which most working class people will find boring demonstrates the elitist mentality of those Unionists and Castle Catholics who are attempting to sidestep the issues thrown up by the last thirty years.''
Sinn Fein Assembly member Barry McElduff slammied the Arts Council attack on the Irish language: ``the Aisling Ghearr group have built up an impressive record. Once again we are seeing the Irish language lose out. Despite a clear commitment contained within the Good Friday Agreement to promote the Irish language, the Arts Council continues to pursue the old agenda of exclusion.''