A COMPROMISE has been reached to go ahead with a live screening of the British royal wedding in Limerick, despite controversy over whether the event should be screened in the city’s historic Milk Market.
The broadcast – billed as one of the opening events of Riverfest 2011, set to generate €20 million for the local economy – will still go ahead but on two smaller screens, festival organisers said yesterday.
Confusion reigned over whether or not the public screening would go ahead after Cllr Michael Sheehan, chairman of the board of trustees at the market, told the Limerick Leader newspaper he feared the event might upset some people’s “sensibilities”.
Cllr Sheehan later told RTÉ’s Liveline programme he had no problem with a scaled-down version of what was originally proposed.
He said the story had been blown out of proportion and even if the Munster rugby team was playing a match at 10am, the market couldn’t accommodate a big screen to broadcast the event.
Former Limerick mayor Independent councillor John Gilligan has also expressed his opposition and said the market place was not there to “promote the monarchy”.
“I’m not against people watching the royal wedding, but I’m not going to go around peddling the illusion that these people are somehow special. It’s palpable nonsense which people should have left behind at six years of age. It’s total fiction,” Cllr Gilligan said.
The local Sinn Féin councillor has also objected to the live screening.
“It is controversial. Not everyone welcomes the royal visit or things to do with royalty. There’s almost a view out there now that you can’t be opposed to this anymore. But you can,” Cllr Maurice Quinlivan said.
Meanwhile, Fran O’Donnell of Futureama Productions said any logistical difficulties concerning the screening of the royal wedding will be resolved.
“We are now putting in a smaller screen but we are putting in two of them, and that will resolve any logistical issues that are there,” Mr O’Donnell explained.
Further details of Riverfest’s Fashion Friday event are available on www.riverfest.ie