THE Ireland and its Diaspora festival, which is being planned as the theme element in the Frankfurt Book Fair in the autumn, is in jeopardy from a lack of funding. It is estimated that about Pounds 500,000 is needed to run the festival, and so far about half of that sum has been raised.
This includes a Government grant of Pounds 50,000 which came in the Budget last year, funding from the Arts Council, the Frankfurt Book Fair itself, and sponsorship from Ireland Journal, a German magazine, and Gaeltacht Reisen, a German travel company.
The festival director, Mr Lar Cassidy, Literature Officer with the Arts Council, and the festival board, chaired by Mr Adrian Munnelly, director of the Arts Council, have applications under consideration with a number of Government Departments and have made an application for European Regional Development Fund aid. They are also involved in a major sponsorship drive, and a committee has been formed to raise funds in the US.
They are hoping that the Government will match the funding which they manage to attract from other sources. There was no grant to the festival in this year's Budget. However, Mr Cassidy is optimistic, saying: "I feel that the applications are under sympathetic consideration."
Ireland was designated the bookfair's theme country in 1996 against strong competition. The fair is the largest cultural event of its kind in the world. Last year it attracted 320,000 visitors, and nearly 9,000 exhibitors from 97 countries.
The Irish pavilion is planned to be in a glass pavilion, purpose built last year when Austria was the theme country. It is hoped to host a major exhibition here on Ireland and its Diaspora through its literature, from the time of the medieval calligraphers on. A theatre will host talks and readings, and a radio studio will broadcast interviews with writers.
There will be a separate exhibition of 300 books from Ireland and its emigrant communities. Macnas will perform in the Book Fair Plaza every day. There will also be events linked to the theme throughout Germany and on a designated day in September, a festival celebrating Irish culture will take place in 500 locations.
"I am really seized with the importance of this opportunity. This is a major opportunity to present Ireland and its books to the world," said the former minister Mr John Wilson, who is on the Arts Council, and is also on the Ireland and its Diaspora festival board. "All the more so now that Seamus Heaney has won the Nobel Prize for Literature."