A number of councillors have criticised the decision to only award An Taibhdhearc/Fibín €2,000 in the Galway City Council’s arts grants allocation.
At Monday’s meeting of the Galway City Council, Cllr John Connolly initially highlighted the issue, but speaking to the Galway Advertiser yesterday, Cllr Connolly says that the arts funding allocation must be looked at.
“In many places I read about how the city has a unique, bilingual status,” Cllr Connolly says. “I see it in many of the council policy documents, I see it on many promotional brochures the council might produce.
“I also see it elsewhere, I see it across the city used by different corporate and educational institutions. We use it to attract national and international tourists. We use it to attract people to come to live in this city - to make their lives here. We also use it as something that is attractive for industry, it is promoted to attract industry.
“One of the things I sometimes feel is how do we live that out or the extent that do we live it out? Do we do the term justice? I think that is what I noted on Monday in the Arts Grants. Of the groups listed there were very few who organise their activities primarily through Irish. There are very few who perform and produce plays or different arts endeavours through the Irish language.
“Obviously Brannar do, they got a grant, but the Taibhdhearc would have a particular historical reputation for doing that. They would also have a reputation and association with the city for their productions in the Irish language. I just noted that Fibín, who made a joint application with An Taibhdhearc applied for a grant of €20,000 and only received €2,000. I thought given all we do say about being a ‘cathair dhá theangach’ that maybe the disparity was quite significant.”
Cllr Connolly suggests that a system could be implemented to benefit those willing to undertake productions and performances in the Irish language.
“I know that every group that applied there was some disparity between what they sought and were granted,” he adds. “In some cases it was bigger, some cases it was smaller. That seemed to be noteworthy for me, there was a difference of €18,000 between what Fibín and the Taibhdhearc had applied for and what they received.
“I think if we really want the city to live up to its reputation as bilingual status and to maintain that attractiveness, to maintain the bilingul status as something we do to atract people we really have to live it out. We have to look at things like our arts grants.
“We have to say to ourselves if there are groups here applying for our support and they are committing to undertaking their activities through the Irish language shouldn’t we be giving them maybe an additional weighting in the application process that would be they would be greater rewarded.
“I was somewhat satisfied that the arts officer informed us that in a previous grant allocation An Taibhdhearc had received €11,000 - I will try to see exactly what that was, but it is welcome. I would like to think into the future that the arts grants would look particularly for groups who are undertaking productions and performances primarily in the Irish language and that there would be an additional weighting in their applications that might mean they receive increased grants.”
Other councillors also discussed the topic at Monday’s meeting. Cllr Owen Hanley said: ‘It is pretty pitiful in a bilingual city’ and also queried ‘how only one 10th of the requested funding’ was given.
The ‘lack of funding for Irish organisations’ was raised by Cllr Imelda Byrne, while Cllr Frank Fahey also queried the funding provided for An Taibhdhearc.
