Ireland’s writers protest at disturbing decision by the Arts Council of Ireland to terminate funding to the Irish Writers’ Centre with immediate effect.
Ireland's literary fraternity has been stunned by the decision by the Arts Council of Ireland to terminate with immediate effect all funding to the Irish Writers Centre. Their statement, signed by a number of Ireland leading authors, including Maeve Binchy, Booker prize winners, Roddy Doyle, John Banville and Anne Enright, acclaimed International authors Richard Ford and Will Self, leading novelists, Joseph O’Connor, Dermot Bolger, John Boyne and Sebastian Barry, poets Paul Muldoon, Derek Mahon, Paul Durkin, Ciaran Carson and Ireland’s Professor of Poetry Michael Longley and literary figures such as literary agent Jonathan Williams are amongst the 55 signatories on the statement that has been circulated to all the National newspapers in Ireland and the United Kingdom expressing their dismay at this disturbing decision and calling for the urgent reinstatement of funding.
The Irish Writers' Centre, which Nobel laureate Seamus Heaney has called "a part of the literary culture", and best selling author John Boyne has described as “a part of the fabric of literature in Ireland”, is the national development agency for the development of writers and writing in Ireland where one if its primary functions is to foster and develop new writing talent so as to maintain Ireland's leading position in World literature.
Literature is a major part of Ireland's social and cultural history. The Irish Writers’ Centre was a space that writers could call their own. It is the only centre in Dublin devoted to literature that can provide an in-house space for readings, literary events, festivals, creative writing courses, developmental works and was the home to a number of writers groups and National organisations such as the Irish Writers’ Union and the Irish Translators and Interpreters Association. With the termination of funding access to these resources will be lost, leaving the next generation of Irish authors in a vacuum and having to look elsewhere for guidance and development.
If Ireland is to maintain its position as a major literary country it needs to develop new and talented writers who have access to the necessary skills, resources and outlets to further their work which, with the termination of funding to the Irish Writers’ Centre, they will find increasingly difficult.
The Irish Writers' Centre will now have to generate its own financial support to be able to provide the services we offer. To do this we have launched a donation scheme whereby you can donate money online at www.writerscentre.ie or you can send a cheque pledging your support to the centre at 19 Parnell Square, Dublin 1.
We have also set-up an Irish Writers' Centre Benefit night on 22 January at 7 p.m. with leading Irish author and recent winner of the Novel category at the Costa Awards, Sebastian Barry. Tickets are priced at €50 with all the money raised going to the Irish Writers’ Centre. Tickets can be purchased from the Irish Writers’ Centre on 01 872 1302.
With your help our fundraising target of €200,000 can be achieved and our programmes and services for writers reinstated in full.
SIGNED STATEMENT
The Arts Council has recently terminated all funding to The Irish Writers’ Centre, an important national institution for the support, development and promotion of writers and writing. While we acknowledge that cuts are inevitable in the present economic downturn, this decision is nevertheless disturbing. It comes at the end of a notably successful year for the Centre, a year which has seen audience numbers and the Centre’s participation in the country’s literary culture at an all-time high. We therefore strongly urge that this decision be reversed and funding for the work of a thriving cultural organisation (€200,000 in 2008) be reinstated urgently.
John Banville
Sebastian Barry
Maeve Binchy
Dermot Bolger
John Boyne
Liam Browne
Ciaran Carson
Prof. Danielle Clarke, University College Dublin
Harry Clifton
Dr. Steve Coleman, NUI, Maynooth
Kevin Crossley-Holland
Philip Cummings
Peter Cunningham
John F. Deane
Celia De Fréine
Roddy Doyle
Paul Durcan
Anne Enright
Prof. Tadhg Foley, NUI, Galway
Richard Ford
David Gardiner, Director, Creighton University Press
Prof. Luke Gibbons, University of Notre Dame
Hugo Hamilton
Dr Derek Hand, St Patrick's College, Dublin
Kerry Hardie
Sean Hardie
Jack Harte
Aidan Higgins
Alannah Hopkin
Jerzy Jarniewicz
Prof. Margaret Kelleher, NUI, Maynooth
Claire Kilroy
Edna Longley, Professor Emerita, Queen’s University Belfast
Michael Longley, Ireland Professor of Poetry
Deirdre Madden
Derek Mahon
Prof. Kerby A. Miller, University of Missouri
Prof. Sean Moore, University of New Hampshire
Paul Muldoon
Éilis Ní Dhuibhne
Dr. Clare O'Halloran, University College Cork
Sean O’Brien
Joseph O'Connor
Cormac Ó Cuilleanáin ("Cormac Millar")
Timothy O’Grady
Glenn Patterson
Justin Quinn
Ian Sansom
Will Self
Matthew Sweeney
Prof. Lawrence Taylor, NUI, Maynooth
Alan Titley
Shaun Traynor
Prof. Kevin Whelan, Director, Keough-Naughton Institute for Irish Studies, Dublin
Jonathan Williams
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Press relaease from Irish Writers Centre:
The Irish Writers’ Centre
19 Parnell Square
Dublin 1
tel: (01) 872 1302
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