Tag Archives: politics

What Now for the Arts Council?

Posted on by

After a failed IT project costing €6.675 million and the departure of Director Maureen Kennelly, the Arts Council faces a crisis of trust and direction. What does it mean for those who work in the sector?

It has been a difficult week for the Arts Council. With the stepping down of Maureen Kennelly on Wednesday, it has lost a Director who had a deep understanding of what it is like to work in the arts, and on Thursday, its senior staff and Chair were questioned by the Public Accounts Committee for over three hours regarding the failed IT system that has now cost €6.675 million.

Continue reading →

History Repeats Itself as British Authorities Get to Decide Who the Terrorists Are

Posted on by

A member of Kneecap has been charged with a terrorism offence, but those in power continue to look away from the deeper crisis.

Continue reading →

The World Can Criticise Kneecap, But They Have Started Something

Posted on by

The controversy surrounding the Irish rap band has obscured deeper questions about power, conflict and resistance, but they won’t go away. (Article first published in the Journal of Music on 30 April.)

Continue reading →

Music and the Betrayal of Ireland

Posted on by

On BBC Radio 3’s CD Review, it seems that the greatest compliment a reviewer can give a conductor is that a passage is ‘beautifully understated’. I was reminded of this a couple of months ago when the conductor David Brophy appeared on RTÉ Radio 1. He was leaving his role with the RTÉ Concert Orchestra after seven years and was asked to pick out three highlights. Alongside concerts with Lang Lang and Jon Lord, he picked the premiere of Dave Flynn’s Concerto for Traditional Irish Musician, Aontacht, performed by Martin Hayes.

‘It had more of a punch to it…. Only a few days before… the IMF arrived into Dublin…  as a nation we were all feeling quite low.’

Beautifully understated.

The concert took place on 24 November 2010. Six days before, the International Monetary Fund had arrived to negotiate the country’s bailout. Two winters before, Continue reading →

What about England?

Posted on by

I am supporting England in the World Cup this summer. As an Irishman, that is easier to write than it will be to act upon. There is history, and the Irish are traditionally sensitive to the English imperiousness that tends to appear on football occasions. But I want to think about our two islands differently. England is our close, island-dwelling neighbour. In the new peacetime that has been created, can the Irish learn to love it? Sporting and cultural events may offer us that chance.

Continue reading →