City of Culture - Act now to turn drama into triumph

It seemed like a great idea — build on the success of last year’s national Gathering, harness a growing movement to think and act locally and encourage Ireland’s arts community to focus their efforts in their own back yard.

Ireland’s new national City of Culture programme is designed to recognise and nurture the cultural achievements of large urban areas. Thanks mostly to the efforts of Arts Minister Jimmy Deenihan, Limerick was designated as Ireland’s first national City of Culture. It achieved this distinction almost without demur from the rest of the country.

That is not so surprising, as it would appear to be an honour well deserved, with a thriving artistic community providing some of the country’s most dynamic art, music and theatre experiences. Limerick is also in the middle of an extensive regeneration project which has now been reinvigorated to include a 10-year plan, costing in the region of €253m.

There was no rancour or bitterness displayed by other urban centres that expect to get their turn in the years ahead. However, that will only happen if the City of Culture project survives and, judging from what has happened in Limerick so far, that is very debatable.

As a drama, it has become a tragedy of errors.

Act 1: Those charged with making it all happen have to operate for months in a vacuum, with the amount of funding — €6m — only emerging last October.

Act 2: Limerick City manager Conn Murray appoints Patricia Ryan as CEO of the year-long event. She had worked as adviser to City of Culture board chairman Pat Cox when he was president of the European Parliament.

Act 3: The artistic director of the programme, Karl Wallace, steps down just hours after the event launched on New Year’s Eve. Now Ms Ryan has resigned as well.

If that is not a complete shambles, nothing is.

So who is to blame? As Mr Deenihan would have expected to gain plaudits for what was largely his idea, he has to accept a measure of responsibility. So too Pat Cox, whose political acumen and legendary negotiation skills appear to have eluded him on this occasion.

However, Mr Deenihan has to accept the lion’s share. Speaking on RTÉ radio news yesterday prior to Ms Ryan’s resignation, he exhibited a baffling lack of knowledge about the progress of the event. He conceded that the late funding was a problem but indicated, in a particularly woolly-headed comment, that “I think the figure of €6m was mentioned”.

Then, when problems began to emerge, he did not insist on a meeting of the board to address issues or even contact Mr Wallace to ascertain the reason for his resignation. While nobody would have expected any arts minister to steer the artistic course of the programme, surely he had a responsibility to try to ensure stability within City of Culture management.

Let us hope that there will be an Act 4 in this sorry saga. Perhaps the City of Culture mandarins should take inspiration from the Munster Rugby team, whose spiritual home is Limerick. For a kick-off, it is essential that Mr Cox appoints more members of the city’s arts community to the board. Given their dynamism and vigour, we might yet see a last-minute drop goal to rescue what could still be a cultural triumph for Limerick.