Inside Ireland’s music festival industry: ‘You can haemorrhage money very quickly’
For promoters, there are risks, tight margins and pinch points. Still, as the summer season begins, optimism prevails
Arts Council
Minister objected to second term for Arts Council director amid fallout over botched IT project
Governing body taking legal action to try to recoup €4m, Dáil’s Public Accounts Committee told
Minister did not consent to second term for Arts Council director Maureen Kennelly, PAC told
Department of Arts ‘should have called it out earlier’, Public Accounts Committee told over Arts Council’s €6.7m botched IT system
Arts Council director Maureen Kennelly to stand down in wake of botched IT contract
Council is due to appear before Public Accounts Committee on Thursday concerning failed €6.7m project
Arts Council takes legal action against contractors in €6.7m IT project
Fury erupted in Government in February when it emerged the council had scrapped plans for a programme joining five existing systems
Paul Durcan obituary: Being a poet was all consuming for him
Being a poet was all consuming for him. His main pursuit in life, it defined his everyday interactions
Remembering the many talents of broadcaster, activist and historian Máire de Paor
Committed socialist and feminist lived through a time when attitudes to women in Irish society were decidedly narrow
RTÉ confirms €3.6m write down on partly abandoned IT project
Broadcaster says problem with project to revamp finance and HR systems ‘an outlier’ in context of operations
New PAC chair says looking into Arts Council’s €6.7m abandoned IT system is priority
Sinn Féin’s John Brady says Public Accounts Committee will examine many of the recent controversies surrounding spending by State bodies
Fedora Prize 2025: Irish composer Michael Gallen wins €100,000 award for new opera
The Curing Line, which is due to premiere at Kilkenny Arts Festival in 2026, has scooped one of the world’s largest opera awards
Behind the scenes at Luail as Ireland’s national dance company prepares to open Dublin Dance Festival
Artistic director Liz Roche has programmed Chora, a triple bill. ‘The dancers are constantly shifting focus and vocabularies, which really requires agility’
Oireachtas committee chair appointments under way ahead of Dáil return next week
Dispute over speaking time for Independent TDs had held up decisions to hand out key roles with €10,880 salary top-up
Golden Fleece Award 2025: ‘I was skint last year, and it affected my head so badly. Winning this means a huge amount’
Sasha Sykes and Sarah Browne have won €10,000 each. What do prizes like this one do for artists’ creativity?
Shona McCarthy, the Irish woman running the world’s biggest arts festival, is heading home: ‘I’m tired. You feel it to your bones’
After 35 years of nonstop work, this ardent advocate for the arts is about to catch her breath
The Samantha Cookes story: Inside the mind of a pathological liar
Living in Ireland for a decade, the compulsive liar - now in prison for social welfare fraud - deceived almost everyone she met
Serial fraudster Samantha Cookes’s funding applications considered by Arts Council on ‘artistic merit’
Cookes secured €36,250 in Arts Council grants between 2021 and 2022
The Irish Times view on wasteful spending: symptoms of a larger problem
None of these cases casts the individuals or organisations involved in a flattering light.
‘Perhaps someone from the Minister’s office might pick up the phone to the National Gallery?'
X-ray scanner at centre of controversy is piece of equipment that an ambitious art gallery should have
Lynne Parker: The Abbey does so much. But Ireland needs a national theatre for the 21st century
The future of Irish theatre looks bleak. It’s time to overhaul the way the sector works – including where the money goes, says Rough Magic’s artistic director
Arts Council review to include role of auditors and accountability of board
Prof Niamh Brennan will lead the review, while a parallel review will be conducted of the Department of Arts and Culture itself
Gardaí investigate ‘alleged financial irregularities’ in Limerick high-wire dance troupe
Fidget Feet has received more than €1.15 million from the Arts Council since 2022
Arts Council spent more than €9m on consultants since 2019
Differences emerge between council and department over timing of warning about botched IT project
High fees for consultants in failed Arts Council computer project
IT firms have extensive work with government departments
Who’s who in the controversy over Arts Council spending?
Extent of losses from failed IT project only disclosed last summer, statement from Catherine Martin suggests
The Arts Council is about to enter a world of pain. It could be even worse for the artists it’s meant to help
Loss from abandoned €7m computer project could have a knock-on effect on cultural organisations
Arts Council may need €1.5m more to replace grants system after €5.3m failure
New grant system was part of original scope of upgrade
The Irish Times view on the Arts Council controversy: another symptom of a wider problem?
The current cycle of stories about the spending of State money leads to concerns about systemic failings
Arts Council’s €5.3m IT loss: the questions left to be answered, and who knew what and when
Unclear when the then minister for arts Catherine Martin was informed of scale of issue
Three companies that shared €4.8m from Arts Council for abandoned IT project named
Three firms who received bulk of €5.3m spent on scrapped IT system named as Codec, Ergo and Expleo
‘A massive waste of money’: Arts Council’s scrapped €6m IT system sparks fury in Cabinet
Ministers criticise public spending and governance breaches and ‘massive waste of money’
Government orders review of operations of Arts Council following €6m IT system controversy
Ministers criticised handling of project by Arts Council and Department of Arts
Arts Council controversy: Review ordered after €6.7m spent on abandoned IT system project
Arts Council says project delivered was ‘not fit for purpose’
Arts Council demands high standards of cultural organisations. It failed to meet them itself
A new IT framework will have seemed a good idea to many in the arts, but much went wrong in its implementation
Arts Council mothballs multimillion overhaul of ICT systems after years of delays
Long-delayed 2023 annual report said to detail spending on overhaul of system for dealing with funding applications
Want to be a writer? ‘Marry well’ might be the best advice
‘Something will turn up’ is a fragile belief to sustain over financially challenging decades – and nothing ruins creativity like anxiety
Abbey Theatre gets €9.5m in strategic funding from Arts Council, €1m more than last year
Almost €60 million spread across nationwide arts bodies
Catherine Martin has been the most consequential minister for culture since Michael D Higgins
The outgoing Green Party TD delivered on her predecessors’ promises to address Ireland’s woeful shortfall when it comes to supporting cultural activity
Terra dance artist Alessandra Azeviche: ‘What I connect with in Ireland is the oppression from the church within our bodies’
The Afro-Brazilian performer and teacher staged one of the hits of this year’s Dublin Fringe Festival. It’s part of a cultural journey
Mick Wallace’s son a chip off the old block when it comes to Italian restaurants
Plus: Keith Duffy in a falling out over knees, Enda Kenny artfully backs a winner, and it turns out RTÉ and Sinn Féin can feel at home with each other after all
Brian Teeling: ‘Every time I see someone wearing one of my T-shirts, even one of the old ones, it makes me happy’
The multidisciplinary Dublin artist is part of the exhibition Skin/Deep: Perspectives on the Body, at Photo Museum Ireland and has designed three new T-shirts for Medical Aid for Palestinians
Clare Daly finds a Dublin Central political address once linked to her ally Mick Wallace
Plus: no sign of the next laureate for fiction; the less-than-diverse membership of Aosdána; and Niall Blaney’s poor attendance record
Creating ‘diverse, open and welcoming platform’ a key aim for Culture Night 2024
Arts Council hopes people will engage more in local projects after experiencing some of 1,700 free events nationwide later this month
Collection of Irish modern art visionary goes to auction
Oliver Dowling, through his work with the Arts Council and his own gallery, was a leading figure in the Irish visual arts world
Arts Council to gift books to inmates in 13 prisons across country on Culture Night
Thirty titles from some of Ireland’s most beloved writers will be distributed, with some authors reading excerpts for prisoners
How artists are funded: Five places around the world and the ways they support creativity
Some countries build theatres, others give young people money to spend on the arts. What works best?
The funny thing about Irish comedy: Why it doesn’t hurt to be rich if you want to be a stand-up
A few big names can fill big venues, but most comedians scrape by. Now, at last, what they do is set to be recognised as worthy of Arts Council funding
New Abbey chair appointment process ‘under way’, as governance report awaited
Department of Arts says Arts Council has primary governance responsibility for the Abbey Theatre
Former Abbey Theatre directors ‘address mistaken impressions’ about payments they received
Governance report still not released by national theatre, while chairwoman’s term is set to end in weeks
The Irish Times view on the Abbey Theatre’s summer closure: questions must be answered
The decision comes in the wake of a long-running but as yet unresolved series of controversies over finances, culture and governance
The Abbey Theatre is vacating the stage during peak season for reasons unknown. What is going on?
The events that have unfolded over the past five years at the national theatre raise obvious parallels with the RTÉ debacle
Legislation introduced to allow comedians access to Arts Council funding
Sinn Féin’s Aengus Ó Snodaigh says ‘comedians are recognised and have the support of the relevant arts councils’ in other countries
Trad musicians begin two-week journey in tribute to Traveller forefathers
Paddy Keenan and Mickey Dunne travelling by horse-drawn wagon to Donegal
The Irish Times view on Basic Income for the Arts: an imaginative investment
The numbers suggest the scheme is having a real impact on the ability of artists to devote themselves to their work
Passion play: Cork theatre fights for its future
The closure of Corcadorca theatre company, in 2022, left a hole that the city’s remaining theatre community is battling to fill
Crosswords & Puzzles
Crosswords & puzzles to keep you challenged and entertained
Stardust
Inquests into the nightclub fire that led to the deaths of 48 people
Common Ground
How does a post-Brexit world shape the identity and relationship of these islands
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