Tag: Fianna Fáil

Mick Heaney , Arts vs politics: We haven’t got the balance right

November 19th, 2011

This brief post comprises a link to Mick Heaney’s article ( Irish Times , 18/11/2011 ) regarding a symbiotic relation between the politics of the State and Irish Arts in Ireland.

I have decided to link the article here, as blogging is a way of retaining record of items of interest that might otherwise be subsumed beneath current issues. I was unsure whether I should provide excerpts from the Heaney article , or to try and create a contextualisation for my reaction to the piece in terms of previous arts posts that are collected here on Poethead.

In the end I decided that the issue of Arts vs Politics is too important against any attempt of mine to extract pithy comment from it for readers. I have decided to limit this post to a full link to the piece, and some relevant links to what I consider to be a deep and unchallenged cultural ossification that was set in motion in 2003 by the De Valeresque Arts Act introduced by Seán O Donoghue T.D (Fianna Fáil), that not alone remains on our statute but was unchallenged by the current government in a single party manifesto in the run up to the last Irish general election.

It seems that our current politicians do not have any ideas about art in its cultural context save their continued financing through the flawed 2003 Act, and the realisation of the arts as an extension of the business of government, which was the main thrust of that Act. A symbiotic relationship between the narrative of the state and the work of the artist can only lead to one thing , the lessening of the independence of the arts rather than the ennobling of the State: State Art , or art as an expression or extension of the concerns of state. (an equation for disaster if ever I saw one)

The 2003 Arts Act and Related links : http://poethead.wordpress.com/the-2003-arts-act/
The Arts Act (2003) can be downloaded at the following link, http://www.oireachtas.ie/viewdoc.asp?fn=/documents/bills28/acts/2003/a242003.pdf

Related links for Mick Heaney ‘Arts vs Politics ‘ :

Arts Vs Politics, We Haven’t got the balance right
Do Arts Cuts hit the right note ? http://poethead.wordpress.com/2010/12/10/excellent-irish-times-article-on-arts-and-culture-do-arts-cuts-hit-the-right-note-10122010/

Scribbling in the Margins , Fianna Fáil Arts Policy.

December 8th, 2010
Ireland has fallen in the Press Freedom League due to the addition of an amendment to the 2006-2009 defamation legislation( enacted on January the First 2010). This fact is mostly unsurprising , except maybe to the Irish media who chose not to highlight the international dialogues on the dangers of defamation censorship, but to attack the group who launched a campaign to highlight these very dangers.

We in Ireland are approaching the first anniversary of that censorship which was launched by an Irish justice Minister , Dermot Ahern, under the advisement of the Irish Attorney General (on January the First 2011).

The fact that the Bill was shoved through under what we politely term guillotined debate and with majority vote was practically ignored by our press, who awaited until a global conversation had occurred and only highlighted the issue 24 hours after the amendment was implemented !

There is of course historical precedent in the Fianna Fáil party for ill-judged censorship which attacks the development of free-speech, and in its turn the Arts and the cultural development of our country. I have highlighted this throughout 2010 in a number of Poethead posts , which I am excerpting and linking here. It is my belief that this is part and parcel of the history of the Fianna Fáil party which sidelined, censored and under-funded the Arts in a manner which led to and will continue to lead to an intellectual diaspora from Ireland. Excerpt for The Old King : The Criminalisation for Blasphemy remains on the Irish Statute.

The development of the Arts in Ireland has since 2003 , under the O Donoghue Arts Act , been atrophied by the concerns of ministers more interested in sports and who appoint our Arts Council. The all-embracing silence of artists and thinkers on the criminalisation of blasphemy being a pointer to an inability to discuss anything outside of very narrow two-dimensional concerns of output and finance , which isn’t really about the realm of ideas and the intellect at all.”

The 2003 O Donoghue Arts Act and the Relation of the Irish Government to the Arts Council.

I have alluded to the Arts Act 2003 which has been covered competently enough in the Press and which brings Government very close to deciding what constitutes Irish art, this Act is a carbon-copy of De Valera policies which led to the Rouault Controversy, the foundation of outsider arts groups and the evolution of an official Irish arts which owed everything to an ideology of mirroring governmental concerns in the development of the State but starved a generation of intellectual food.

There are currently numerous rows in Ireland regarding funding, I reckon the intercine squabbling amongst those who want the crumbs off the table is wholly undignified and that we should be looking at remedies such as the Repeal of the 2003 Arts Act, the independence from Government of Arts Council Appointments, and the relation of the Arts Council to the Revenue Commission ( who seek Govt. advisement on the endowment of tax exemptions) .

I do not believe that the Fianna Fáil Party are nurturing the root of Press-freedom or intellectual and cultural development through policies that have managed to starve arts and cultural institutes of their needed revenues, that have left the regions bereft of decent cultural centres and that have failed to identify the problems in their 13 years of policy which is showing itself as an abject failure on a cultural scale.

Poethead Links and Irish Imprints , reacting to savage Fianna Fáil and Green Cutbacks in Arts.

I aways think that European cultures know the value of their poetic and literary traditions more so than us Irish, but I am optimistically waiting to be proven wrong. I include herein some of the Independent Press names , which will evolve and be added to and indeed I have added also some online writers who I and many others enjoy.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
National Campaign for the Arts, Ireland: National Recovery Plan (November 24) Impact on the Arts.

November 29th, 2010

Savings of €76 million need to be made by 2014 : NCFA Response to the NRP 24/11/2010.

The NCFA has issued a very restrained response to the proposed Governmental cuts in Arts and Heritage (Including Cultural Institutions), So it’s linked here, whilst I examine the faulty RSS feed:

These are being frontloaded in 2011 with a cut of €26 million. Final figures will be announced on Budget Day.€50 million will be saved over the remaining 3 years.

Only €5 million of this €26 million will come from a reduction in allocations to cultural institutions and cultural projects. See below:

* Reduced allocations to cultural institutions and cultural projects €5 million

* Reduced funding for sporting bodies and agencies including Irish Sports Council and National Sports Campus €3 million

* Reduction in tourism expenditure through operational efficiencies, prioritisation of activities and more focused tourism marketing investment €5 million

We checked with the Department today and we understand that the €5 million cut to culture covers Budget Lines D1-D10 in the annual budget . In other words €5 million has to be saved from across the following budget lines. How much each will be reduced by will be announced on Budget Day on Dec 7th.”

Slight Rant : Fianna Fáil Planning 2000-2010 and how it effects Ireland’s natural and built heritage.

Unfortunately , the issue here is of trust. The jaundiced and repellent Fianna Fáil approach to Arts, Heritage and Culture (including Gaelteacht Affairs) does not allow for green shoots, but presents instead a hackneyed and twee vision of Ireland. I do not think there will be a radical change in policy without a change in Government. Other Poethead Posts and Pages on this issue include petitions for Independent Writers Centres funds not to be cut, the PH links to Save Tara and include the truly illiterate Blasphemy Criminalisation into Irish law in January 2010. Even when the country was rolling in money , Fianna Fáil heritage policy involved swapping actual Heritage centres for interpretative Centres, and under-funding the National Library archives to the point of not providing them with heat, climate-control or decent storage spaces.

The Irish Green Party : ‘If you sup with the divil, best bring a long spoon made of Asbestos’.

Its pretty obvious that I have been opposed to Governmental policy in the Arts since the 2003 Arts Act, and since 2000 in relation to Fianna Fáil’s consistent negligence in heritage affairs, which have seen a raft of planning bills introduced into the Dáil which have been not balanced with Bills that focus on Conservation of Ireland’s natural and built Heritage. I suppose that when the EU , banks and planning investigations complete , the current Green party will hold up its hands and admit they didn’t know about what has been blindingly obvious to everyone else all along. The fact that we are and have been in Breach of EU Directive does not bother individuals or party members , because they have not been criminalised and/or brutalised for pointing out years of abject failures or profit-centred planning, including the National Monuments Act 2004, The SIB 2006, The Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2002 which is delightfully known as the Trespass Law . In the period between 2000-2006 , Fianna Fáil did not present a single Act wholly focused on conservation, one can see where their priorities lie quite clearly and it must be said those of their junior coalition partner too.

National Campaign For Arts Statements
Save Tara Campaign
Planning Bills can be examined at the Oireachtas site, the Strategic Infrastructure Bill 2006 , is of particular interest here.
The National Monuments Act 2004 , allows for destruction of heritage sites by a sitting Minister for Environment
The 2006 Strategic Infrastructure Bill restructures the Irish courts to fast-track Developer-led planning and takes to pieces the Aarhus Convention ( a central platform of Green Party Policy)
National Campaign for Arts , Ireland.

National Campaign For the Arts, Ireland
The Old King; a criminalisation for blasphemy remains on the Irish statute.

August 1st, 2010
The Old King, a Criminalisation for Blasphemy remains on the Irish Statute.

The image of the Old King is by french expressionist/fauvist painter Georges Rouault who was accused by the predecessors of this Irish Government of both blasphemy and incompetence. His paintings, mainly of religious themes, were refused exhibition in Dublin. A spirited defence of Rouault was undertaken by Louis Le Brocquy in which he accused Fianna Fáil of chocolate-box sentimentalism in their refusal to appreciate art. I believe it is worse than that.

The development of the Arts in Ireland has since 2003 (the O Donoghue Arts Act) been atrophied by the concerns of ministers more interested in sports and who appoint our Arts Council. The all-embracing silence of artists and thinkers on the criminalisation of blasphemy being a pointer to an inability to discuss anything outside of very narrow two-dimensional concerns of output and finance, which isn’t really about the realm of ideas and the intellect at all. It presents a paucity to our future generations in terms of leadership and discussion. We are not making art to reflect our ideas or for our children, we are making it to echo the narrow and constipated concerns of Government !

There were to be two referendums in October 2010. I have commented elsewhere on the postponing of the Children’s Rights Referendum which was to occur on the same day as the blasphemy referendum. It seems that alone in the developed world, we in Ireland have now got an entirely superfluous blasphemy amendment (2006-2009 Defamation Legislation) which will for the forseeable future remain on our statute. Last week Barry Andrews TD confirmed another Referendum postponement, until 2011. (Edit: second anniversary of this innovation occurs Jan 2012 – no sign of the promised referendum)

This criminalisation for blasphemic utterance is based not in the definition of blasphemy but in the offender’s ability to generate outrage! As the Roualt controversy showed, it is quite easy for outrage to be generated in Ireland and that the Arts are indeed subject to the manipulations of governments whose inability to lead is propped by unnecessary legislation in order that debate does not occur. Debate generates ideas and discussions which create fear and are thus anathema to would-be leaders.

I have on my studio wall a wonderful early reproduction of the Old King, which stops people in their tracks because the observer can actually see the brush-strokes. I put it there in it’s simple wooden and glass frame as a reminder of the folly of the Rouault controversy and how simple it is to fall into a laughing-stock by virtue of personal vanity.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
Raymond Deane’s Letter to the Irish Times , 26/02/10.

February 26th, 2010

This is a C+P from today’s letter’s page in the Irish Times,to which I am linking some PH posts on how Martin Cullen TD has appointed and directed his Arts Council:

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The Irish Times – Friday, February 26, 2010 : Cuts in Arts Council Funding.

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Madam, – So the Arts Council has had its budget cut by 5.6 per cent. While this is regrettable, in the present climate it is hardly draconian (“Arts organisations to discuss severe funding cutbacks”, February 6th).

Yet instead of spreading this cut evenly across the spectrum of its clients, the council has elected to cut all funding to an apparently arbitrarily selected number of the livelier theatre companies and contemporary music ensembles, as well as the Association of Irish Composers, while “larger theatre companies have been less severely affected”.

One can only conclude that the council’s aim is to prevent new Irish theatrical and musical works seeing the light of day, while continuing to favour those established arts institutions that are seen as part of the tourist industry.

It is thereby negating at least three of the goals set out in its Partnership for the Arts document: to “assist artists in realising their artistic ambitions”, to “make it possible for people to extend and enhance their experience of the arts”, and to “strengthen arts organisations countrywide so as to secure the basis of a vibrant and stable arts community”. It is also, in my view, violating its public service remit. – Yours, etc,

RAYMOND DEANE,

National Campaign for the Arts.