Government not an open book in its dealings with artists and the arts

I’M one of the small constituency disgusted at the John McNulty affair because the Taoiseach, Enda Kenny, has insulted artists in using the IMMA as a spring-board to “better things” for a political protege.

This State has a sorry habit of using the arts as a political tool, and IMMA has been the subject of the most serious political interference. Am I the only person who remembers the political shafting of Dr. Brian Kennedy, after he was interviewed to be the new director of IMMA, in 2001? I bet Kennedy remembers, too, in sunny Spain, where he is director of the Toledo Museum of Art.

It was a confidential interview process and Kennedy, then director at the National Gallery of Australia, was the leading contender, when four approaches were made to Marie Donnelly, the chairman of IMMA, to the effect that Kennedy’s appointment would not be acceptable to the Arts Minister, Sile de Valera.