And so this is it. After all the walking and talking and consultations and soul searching and swearing and gnashing of teeth, it has all boiled down to 80 pages of glossy print which sits proudly in the back of a car this morning like a latter day Book of Kells as it winds its way south to Kerry. Precious cargo indeed, as it is the most important document to ever leave Galway. If successful, it will leave an imprint on the city like none before. An imprint that will last for the bulk of this century and locate Galway as the happening city in Ireland.
Yes, the bid book for the Capital of Culture has left town. This afternoon it will be handed into a building in Killarney and after that it will be in the lap of the Gods and the international team of judges who will evaluate its claims. They will poke it and stare at it, they will visit here and see if everything we say in it is true. They will look at all the applications and see if the true hunger for the title exists. They will look beyond the fancy footwork of report-writing. They will examine words like inclusion and consultation and diversity and access and faciities and see if each and every pledge made is more than just a pledge. They will come and walk our streets and see if they can smell it for themselves, this naked desire to be Capital of Culure. They will also detect any arrogance lest we should lose the run of ourselves and assume we have it. And they will go to all the other cities and towns and do exactly the same thing. And let the best bid win.
But just because the bid is gone does not mean that we can take our foot off the pedal. It is not like when the Yanks used to visit and we’d ‘dress up proper’ with triangular sandwiches and drink tay out of small handled blue willow cups — and then as soon as they were driving down the boreen, we’d turn into ‘bastes’ again, supping from the saucers.
We have to ensure that what has made Galway a candidate for this title is maintained. That the interest in the arts that has been created among those who previously felt they had no part to play in it is maintained. That the right to our own culture, and our perception of that, remains with all of us and not just to a precious elite who sup wine and airkiss and live on the egoistical canapes of ‘the orts’.
This week the city plays host to Baboro, a truly wonderful event that has as its raison d’etre the mission to instil a curiousity and a creativity among children. I spoke with its former artistic director Lali Morris earlier this year and thanked and her team for the tremendous sense of wonderment that they bring to children year after year after year.
In this era of HiDef technology, the ability to amaze chidlren to retain their focus and concentration through good old fashioned performance is some achievement. Babor has done this for this entire age group.
The bid process should be a Baboro for us all — a movement that sees us all find wonderment in what lies around us. Galway is a wondrous canvas for the senses, artistic, culinary, aesthetically, sartorially. Let us inhale it all, let us keep the bid alive by creating that sense of wonderment that will stay with us throughout life, to save us from the rigidity of thought that comes from the humdrum restricted reality of modern bottom line thinking. Foot on the pedal folks. The bid book is gone, but the work is just beginning.
