Madam, – I was gratified to read Patrick Cotter's letter (September 18th) on funding for the arts. Without doubt, the Munster Literature Centre is a credit to Cork. The Western Writers' Centre (Ionad Scríbhneoiri Chaitlín Maude), based in Galway for the past eight years, has initiated a Writers-in-Hospitals project and The Forge at Gort spring literature festival. It has edited and published a literary newsletter, The Word Tree, and is the only project of its kind in the region.
Inexplicably, the Arts Council took away its vital Programme Funding, and the Galway City Arts Office campaigned against it at council level. Just before the Arts Council removed its funding, the centre received a major Irish-language award. All attempts to have Galway City Council provide decent premises for the Centre have failed.
The contrast between the attitude of Cork city to its writers’ centre and that of Galway to the Western Writer’s Centre couldn’t be more different. But attitudes to art and culture are very different in the two cities. I congratulate Patrick Cotter on a great, active centre and Cork City Council for having the vision to support it.
Now Limerick city has its writers’ centre. It seems Galway City Council should begin to appreciate the bigger cultural picture and realise that cultural tribalism will not advance the city’s cultural image one whit. The current soi-disant consultations towards an arts strategy for the city are a cosmetic, tightly-edited, farce. – Yours, etc,