Tuesday 21 January 2014

Dancing like nobody's watching and Limerick City of Culture: Part 2

Efforts have been made to adjustment the structure of Limerick City of Culture to make it appear acceptable that Pat Cox attempted to gift Patricia Ryan with a job and a generous wage packet. The interim appointment of Mike Fitzpatrick and the introduction of further representation from cultural groups and Councillors should of course be welcomed, but should never have had to be fought for.


The papers read:


“Cox said he was “determined to do everything I can and we can to hit the reset button to put together in place the necessary resources.” ” [1]


“Mr Fitzpatrick now has the opportunity to show people there is more on offer than squabbling.” [2]


“I firmly believe that, the negativity created recent events, Limerick can and will put the past week behind it, seize the fantastic opportunity to highlight all that is positive about that fine city and get on with the project.” [3]


The ‘reset button’, ‘squabbling’ and putting the ‘past week behind it’.
The need to forget and move forward is important, discussing the circumstances that allowed the controversy to exist is ‘squabbling’ and going on blindly despite the nation witnessing an obvious fault is progress.


We are all once again asked to dance like nobody is watching.
The virtue; in being more determined after clear failure is a selfish one, adopted by Patricia Ryan before her resignation and now being adopted by much of the media to the comfort of Pat Cox.


In his previous defence of Ryan’s gift, Conn Murray, Limerick City and County manager, stated:
“"I accept the criticism around the process and if, quite honestly, I had been given a different approach to this, different time lines, obviously the approach would have been different" [4]


It seems all it took was prolonged outrage and organised action by the people of Limerick to find a different approach. Ryan’s quality of being available at short notice seems, somehow, more dispensable than before, when we see that an interim Chief executive could be appointed. Perhaps they can find someone who is as available as Ryan and maybe someone who will not be as reliant on others with a capacity for the job at hand, as Ryan made clear she was on Karl Wallace to handle the job she was gifted [4].


Something which is important to acknowledge when culture is used as a promotional tool is that culture is not necessarily positive in design or in action.


Culture is more than what you can sell and more than entertainment.


Culture can be designed to be ugly and uncomfortable, and cultural practitioners should be aware that in the creation of their work- they may design something which is in effect and interpretation ugly or uncomfortable.


Their ability to create discomfort and ugliness was used to make Ryan resign.


It is vital that arts and cultural practitioners not only use their darker talents in the creation of their work, but also in defence of their work.









[4]http://www.independent.ie/entertainment/festivals/festivities-and-fireworks-as-city-of-culture-shakes-off-controversy-29876207.html

Friday 10 January 2014

Dancing like nobody's watching and Limerick City of Culture 2014: Part 1

The departure of Karl Wallace and the subsequent departure of Patricia Ryan; played out publicly what many people know or assume about the terms 'Board', 'CEO', 'Director' and 'Brand' mean in relation to public administration.


Such titles and jobs are more associated, with an uncertainty about credibility and a certainty about personal profit, than they are with work or production. The Patricia Ryan's of Ireland are all about 'delivery' and 'oversight'. They ensure the project is delivered, to her credit, so her and others like her can perpetuate the myth of their competence. They oversee who responds to their invented authority and who questions it, so further recruits for the pyramid scheme can be identified.


The multiplication of the hierarchy is important, it guards its existence. Patricia Ryan did not pick up her pay check so those implicit in gifting her (not hiring her) for a job she was not suited for nor needed for. The reality is, she lost nothing in this exercise, it is not clear why she was hired or if she was needed, all she needed to do, was nothing to receive her gift.


It was the actions of Karl Wallace and his colleagues Jo Mangan and Maeve McGrath who's depatrure brought her down. Unlike Patricia they have lost financially as they gave up positions they had to compete for, they lost personally as unlike Patricia, they had labour of use and they applied it to the concept at hand and they have of course lost professionally as they showed a disregard for paymasters.


In the media storm that followed Patricia did what the rest of her ilk would do, they danced like nobody was watching.


In the blind determination she showed in her inability and her vacuousness regarding how she could not relate how professional artists, cultural workers and anyone who attempts to be rewarded for their ability viewed her salary.


She danced like nobody was watching, assuming enthusiasm would qualify her, that in ignoring all that was around her;


Eyes clenched closed- her appointment she didn't think “was very relevant to people on the ground”


Fist's pumping- she thought “people were more interested in the programme, what’s going to happen, and what’s in it for them...that’s what my focus has been and that’s what it will continue to be”


hips- with a life of their own that she was doing the job she was needed to do and despite it all she said “If anything I’m even more determined”


Then, her friends stopped the song, put a coat on her and called a taxi- so they could continue their party, without her.



*Quotes from http://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/artistic-director-of-limerick-city-of-culture-resigns-1.1641819

About Me

My photo
Following and branching from the main themes Poetry, Urbanism and Beer and all the rest, along the way.