Limerick council denies €200 ‘insult’ in Harris film festival row

Limerick City and County Council has said it gave €1,100 to the Richard Harris International Film Festival and not €200 as claimed by the organisers.

However, the festival’s director Zeb Moore said he stands over his assertion that it only got €200 from the council as €900 of the €1,100 had come from Fáilte Ireland and was merely paid out to the event by the council.

“The council’s actual contribution is €200,” Mr Moore said

Mr Moore described the €200 allocation as “an insult,” adding that “a child would get more on its First Holy Communion Day”.

The council denies it snubbed the event through lack of support.

Mr Moore said the council had come up with €200 for this year’s festival which commences on October 31.

The council said in fact it had given the festival €1,100 and is highlighting it in its Halloween promotion of events taking place in the city.

However Mr Moore said €900 had actually come from Fáilte Ireland and this was distributed by the council.

The festival, now in its fourth year, has the support of the Harris family along with international film figures such as Russell Crowe, Stephen Rea, Fionnula Flanagan and Grammy Award songwriter, Jimmy Webb.

The council said the organisers of the festival had failed to submit a budget for consideration and failed to turn up at an arranged meeting on September 30.

A spokesman for the council said: “Limerick City and County Council is again calling on the organisers of the Richard Harris International Film Festival to arrange for the submission of their budget for consideration.”

Mr Moore said all their accounts were on its website and at short notice they had been asked to come up with a budget for a meeting on September 30.

“There was no formal request by the council to meet with us on a budget. We could not come up with a budget for a meeting at such short notice as all our figures are projected figures. It would be impossible to come up with this budget request at short notice.

“We want to be up front and work with the council. We have drawn up a plan for cultural activities in the period up to 2020 which will embrace film, theatre and other cultural activities which we feel could draw 10,000 visitors to Limerick.”

The festival, which starts on October 27, will see the screening of 55 Irish and international short and feature films along with major events such an interview with Fionnula Flanagan and a concert by Jimmy Webb.