Irish Examiner view: Arts revival needs huge investment

Clarity is needed on supports for a sector more damaged than most

Supporters are back in Croke Park for sporting events but not for concerts. Picture: Eddie O'Hare

The pandemic underlines how we, despite occasional assertions of individualism, expect government to be arbiters of behaviour. The pandemic has underlined how we expect governments to offer certainty where there may be none. 

That so many governments offer so many different defences exacerbates frustration and, all too often, stirs rejection of well-considered public health measures.

The near Calvinism of New Zealand conflicts with the barely-contained rodeo in Texas. That neither jurisdiction has controlled the mercurial virus as they, or we, might wish may offer a lesson more significant than is immediately apparent. 

That frustrating, divisive contrast is alive within many jurisdictions, too, and, as weekend events showed, we are no exception.

The 40,000 souls lucky enough to be in Croke Park to admire Limerick’s wonderful hurlers last Sunday were just the tip of a very large iceberg. 

Many thousands more met in clubhouses, bars, or at garden barbecues to celebrate one of the highlights of the Irish sporting calendar. 

Saturday’s All-Ireland semi-final, between Kerry and Tyrone, deferred because of the pandemic, may not attract as many spectators, but the September 11 final, involving serial bridesmaids Mayo, most certainly will. 

That gardaí had to order Croke Park bars to close on Sunday sounded a warning, too — a warning that we may be culturally closer to Austin than Auckland.

Risks

The date of that final — the 20th anniversary of the attacks on New York’s World Trade Centre — is, in the context of the pandemic, insignificant, but the same cannot be said about the risk inherent in bringing large crowds together, even in the open air. 

That almost 5,000 cases have been linked to a Cornwall music-and-surfing festival this month, unfortunately, underlines that reality. 

As Dr Tony Holohan, the chief medical officer, pointed out on Monday, Covid-19 hospitalisations over the weekend reached a level “not seen since February”, so it seems reckless to ignore this evidence.

Nevertheless, our locked-down performing arts community may look at Croke Park and Cornwall askance and wonder what has to happen before they can resume viable work in the public sphere. 

Despite gallant efforts, online delivery remains a poor second cousin to the exhilaration when live performance and audience meet.

That only 165m out of 365m Spotify customers are subscribers to the world’s largest music-streaming service highlights the difficulties performers denied a public platform face. 

It also highlights the growing fantasy that everything from data to music can be enjoyed without paying a fee.

Health Minister Stephen Donnelly said on Tuesday that he expects remaining restrictions to be lifted before Christmas, so uncertainty persists.

However, there need be no uncertainty around supports that might be offered to the performing arts community or for how long those supports might stand.

Clarity is entirely possible, irrespective of pandemic flux. That banks can, to this day, write off losses incurred in 2008 against taxes on 2021 profits may not be a perfect precedent, but it indicates the scale and length of supports necessary to revive a sector more damaged than most.