Arts Council should back writers’ centre

WHY has the Arts Council once again refused grant-aid to the Western Writers’ Centre in Galway?

The centre has managed, on very little, to carry out a programme of readings, events and initiatives which are unique in this region.

It established the first ever writer-in-residence in a Galway hospital, working with elderly long-stay patients to produce an anthology of poems, something never done in the west before. Their outreach work included running a poetry workshop with the traveller support group, in the process working up a radio play written by Julia Sweeney, a member of the Travelling community.