Dear Editor,
I do not support Cllr Michael Crowe's political views and am unlikely to in the near future, but I do support his questioning of City Council funding for the Arts Festival, and not merely because The Saw Doctors were refused use of the festival marquee, which sounds like a classic case of schoolboy peevishness.

Before Cllr Crowe waxes self-righteous about this issue, let me remind him that there were enough city councillors rubbing shoulders with suits from the arts festival on that glorious recent bash in the United States for the issue to have been raised before now, and even Galway City's Arts Officer was there - so why wasn't the matter brought up?

The Galway Arts Festival brass won't reply to city council queries - why should they? They have been taught over the years that all they have to do is plead for extra cash and the council will bend over backwards to give it to them. Last year, unprecedented access was granted to Galway Arts Festival to put their case directly to the council for a second allotment of money on top of their usual grant. They got the extra dosh. Galway City Council is responsible for the arts festival's arrogance. Pull the plug on the their effortless stream of grant-aid and it might lengthen a face or two.

But Cllr Crowe has opened an interesting Pandora's Box of questions around just how the city council funds the arts and I hope he and other councillors have the courage to keep it open. How are funding decisions made? By whom - the Arts Office or by a selection of councillors? Is the city council there merely to rubber-stamp grant decisions made elsewhere in the building? Are there any conflicts of interest at City Hall, and where are they? From what information source do councillors keep up-to-date on the arts in the city? What is the fate (for instance) of grant-aid made to Druid Theatre in the event that their refurbishment plans are noticably delayed or put on hold? Has the council nodded through new arts' projects, which merely serve to stifle or smother existing projects which they also fund? Is there an arts' plan? (I understand that a 'draft' has been in the ether for a long time now and, though called for by some councillors, has never emerged in solid form.) What genius (for example) suggested to Galway City Council that the Western Writers' Centre be addressed for discussion purposes merely as 'a writers' centre,' and not given its full title? The Western Writers' Centre receives little more than lunch-money from Galway City Council after more than seven years in existence - Limerick Writers' Centre has secured premises and support in less than 12 months.

So let's hope that The Saw Doctors incident prompts more funding questions and perhaps the odd public use of the Freedom of Information Act, before the arts in Galway become a laughing-stock throughout the rest of the country. The arts festival's refusal of the marquee is merely a symptom of an already fractured, quarrelsome, arrogant and often schoolboyish attitude prevailing in some quarters of the arts in the city. And no one has yet asked the pertinent questions.

Sincerely,
Fred Johnston,
1, Carn Ard,
Circular Road,
Galway.

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