Whatever happened to Ireland's city of culture?

JMT2016

Remember back in 2014, when Limerick was made Ireland's city of culture for the year?

It got some good publicity - take this nice write-up in the British press

As Ireland’s first-ever City of Culture in 2014, Limerick continues to impress. It boasts medieval and Georgian architecture, the newly renovated King John’s Castle, a lively art museum, great pubs and a buzzing contemporary café culture, but the rejuvenated city is also a national stage hosting a fun and action-packed programme of arts, crafts, entertainment, cultural and sporting events.

Wasn't it meant to be an annual thing or at least an event once every few years? But there was not a sausage about it since. Why is that?

Some journalists were a bit cynical about the whole thing - this Examiner article gives you an idea:

So somebody came up with a bright idea. Let’s hand over the cash under the guise of awarding Limerick something called “the national city of culture”. If only those goddamn artists with their quaint notions of integrity and truth had just got with the programme. Instead, there was all this palaver, and the only thing that was rebranded was the old staple of Irish politics, the stroke.

The announcement that Limerick was to be awarded the state’s first national city of culture came in July 2012. There was no competition. No panel of experts. No goddamn artists with flowery notions. It was just commanded by Noonan that it be so.

I think we need another Irish city of culture! - when's the next one?

Water John

That became such a political f*** up, nobody tried again.

callaway92

I thought Galway got it for 2017?

JMT2016

Water John wrote: »

That became such a political f*** up, nobody tried again.

Pity though - that doesn't usually matter!

JMT2016

callaway92 wrote: »

I thought Galway got it for 2017?

Anything on google?

super_furry

Galway won their bid to become the European City of Culture for 2020.

http://www.thejournal.ie/galway-voted-europe-capital-of-culture-2020-2874883-Jul2016/

biko

Galway wins every year.

JMT2016

super_furry wrote: »

Galway won their bid to become the European City of Culture for 2020.

http://www.thejournal.ie/galway-voted-europe-capital-of-culture-2020-2874883-Jul2016/

Ah yeah, that's a different thing though!

I think we need another Irish city of Culture as well!

MEGA BRO WOLF 5000

Limerick IS the true capital of culture in Ireland. Naggin off the head about 6p.m. Getting the horse into town with your bag of cans and pretending Flan is your dad when you go into Costello's, fingering girls afterwards with chicken hut gravy all over your fingers.

Thats culture.

lawlolawl

Yeah, someone controlling the purse strings realized 'Wait, ****ing Limerick of all places?!?!' and stopped wasting money promoting the utter kip.

smurgen

lawlolawl wrote: »

Yeah, someone controlling the purse strings realized 'Wait, ****ing Limerick of all places?!?!' and stopped wasting money promoting the utter kip.

Limerick isn't a bad place at all.had a great time anytime i've gone there.

Princess Consuela Bananahammock

smurgen wrote: »

Limerick isn't a bad place at all.had a great time anytime i've gone there.

Easy on th chicken gravy next time

Water John

Can't recall full details, but Pat Cox was up to his boll***s in it. I think Noonan bailed the whole project out.
It was cobbled back together a bit.
Probable political conclusion, bury it.

smurgen

Princess Consuela Bananahammock wrote: »

Easy on th chicken gravy next time

'Ave a bowl of coddle and calm down love!

Daisy78

I might be wrong here but I recall reading somewhere that due to the fact that a number of Irish cities were in the running for the European City of Culture including Limerick that it made sense to put the Irish City of Culture on hold as resources were otherwise deployed on the European bid.

hannible the cannible

Princess Consuela Bananahammock wrote: »

Easy on th chicken gravy next time

I find it helps the digits slide in way easier

Silentcorner

It was quietly ditched not long after 2014 which is a shame in my opinion, because this was the first time in my lifetime, the state has funded a cultural program that wasn't designed or meant to fill up the pubs, or create a mass spend therefore getting a tangible return in the from of VAT.

It was "gifted" to Limerick because lets face it, along with being home to the Minister of Finance, it has struggled with an image problem for nearly 40 years....very few cities in the world have had to endure that...an image problem that has little to do with crime and more to do with how National Media amplify the crime/drugs/social problems that the city dies suffer from....this media narrative is alive and well today thanks to RTE/Irish Indo in particular....it was particularly evident in 2014!

If you didn't bother going to Limerick for any events. or if you are from Limerick but didn't bother you probably would have thought it was a disaster, over the 12 months "the rocky start" was repeated over and over again, even now that is all some Irish people can remember, the first month was a blanket media disaster...

But for those of us who did enjoy it, and it was very successful, it completely exposed the bull**** narrative for what it is...

The real shame is that many Irish people will grow up, thinking that "Arts Festivals" are all about watching BellX1 or The Coronas or any band and getting langers drunk is what our culture is all about...I keep away from any of these festivals, mostly held in our tourist towns, they are nothing but a shake down!

CrabRevolution

Considering we legally only have 5 cities in the Republic, it'd get old pretty quickly rotating it between them every few years. Then again Newry and Derry have nationalist majorities so could take part, Belfast too.