Limerick City of Culture boss quit in row over €1.8m weekend

Tensions developed between the Limerick City of Culture board and former artistic director, Karl Wallace over a proposal to stage a major international weekend event costing €1.8m, it emerged yesterday.

Board member Brian McEnery said Mr Wallace was very “enthusiastic” about the Royal de Luxe programme, but the board did not sign off on this.

Mr McEnery said: “That was a matter of tension, but that was a €1.8m spend over the course of one weekend. That was a third of our grant from Government. We were not in a position, and certainly as a board member, I would not have been comfortable to say we were going to spend €1.8m over the course of one weekend.”