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.''
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