CULTURE WARS
BREAK OUT
IN LIMERICK
The current controversy centres on the reasons for Mr Wallace’s
resignation and the manoeuvrings behind it only now coming to light. Mr Wallace, originally from London, was
appointed to the position of Artistic Director in March of this year and was
largely responsible for putting together the programme for the year of culture,
which was unveiled in November. Sources have indicated that Mr Wallace, the
former artistic director of the City’s Belltable Arts Centre, feels that his
position has been marginalised by recent events. International programmer Jo
Mangan and commissioning and legacy programmer Maeve McGrath also resigned from
the project.
BREAK OUT
IN LIMERICK
Hardly had the opening of the “Limerick City of Culture”
begun on New Year’s Eve when raging controversy broke out with the resignation
of Artistic Director, Karl Wallace, and the subterranean goings on at the
centre of the administration of the event were slowly revealed to an astounded
public. Hardly a surprise, some would say, given the city’s rambunctious
politics over many decades and the combative personalities at the centre of
them.
Limerick, at over 90,000 population, is the third largest
urban area in the Republic of Ireland and the largest city on the West Coast of
Ireland at the mouth of Ireland’s largest river, the Shannon, has featured in
every major event in Irish history since its foundation early in the 9th
Century. Distinguished also as the only Irish city to establish a “Soviet” , in
1919, at the beginning of the Irish War of Independence against Great Britain
which ended in 1921.
Mr Wallace is
understood to believe he has been increasingly undermined and marginalised in
recent weeks and his working relationship with Patricia Ryan, chief executive
officer of Limerick National City of Culture 2014, has suffered. “While I
regret making an early departure, I can no longer stand over a project that I
have concerns about, concerns that have been repeatedly aired but not
addressed,” Mr Wallace told the Irish Independent.
“From May
onwards, I outlined the necessary staffing structure to deliver the programme
including positions such as a technical manager, education and outreach
advisor, operations manager. As we progressed, it was very clear that those
requests were not going to be honoured and also that there was a lack of basic
understanding and arts expertise of the structure that is required to make a
project like this work,” he added.
ANGER AT LOCAL MEETING:
On Friday night,
03.01.14, Hundreds of people attended
a public meeting to discuss the future of Limerick City of Culture following
the resignation of Artistic Director and two of his programming team. The
meeting, at the Clarion Hotel, was attended by members of the artistic
community in Limerick and members of the City of Culture board as well as under
fire CEO Patricia Ryan. Ryan carries baggage as having been a political
assistant to Pat Cox, former euro-Parliament member and one-time president of
the institution and Chair of the City of
Culture Board, adding to the intrigue of the situation in the public mind.
Heated discussions
and angry accusations abounded at the meeting which, in publicity terms, has
eclipsed the actual event opening, sadly for the city, which deserves better
from its public administration. Anger was expressed in the room about Mr
Wallace’s resignation, and the manner of the appointment of Ms Ryan without a
public competition. She will be paid €120,000 for her 18-month contract. Ms
Ryan’s salary, a spokesman said, will be €79,000 a year, or €6,580 per month
for her 18-month contract. One national newspaper had speculated that the
figure was closer to €170,000, which was strongly denied by Limerick city and
county manager Conn Murray, who appointed her. Ms Ryan has the potential to
earn a bonus of €15,000 per year if she achieves certain key performance
indicators, such as bringing the project in on budget and delivering the
programme as outlined. No answer was forthcoming from City Officials as to why
there was no competition for the CEO’s position.
“I sat with
people over Christmas who are revolted. People are looking for absolute transparency
and accountability in this country, We have had enough in this country of a
culture of nepotism and cronyism,” City Councillor Tom Shortt told the meeting.
Many said they
had no confidence in the the chief executive, the board or the chairman and
there was a large show of hands after calls were made for Ms Ryan to resign.
“We had a good
person in Karl Wallace because he came through a proper process of recruitment.
The CEO did not come through a similar process,” Mr Shortt claimed.
Dr John Greenwood,
chairman of Professional Limerick Art Network, told the meeting there was no
confidence in the board. “As a gesture to the city, Patricia Ryan should step
down as CEO and an artistic co-ordinator and team be put immediately in place
to help deliver Karl Wallace’s vision,” he said.
In her first
public comment since Mr Wallace’s resignation, Ms Ryan insisted she would “very
much like to continue working” with the City of Culture. “I have never claimed to have an artistic or cultural background. My
job is not to provide the artistic direction,” she said. When asked by a
member of the public what she would bring to the table, she replied: “I would
like to bring the project management to the table. The artistic direction is
for another team and I hope we will be in a position to move on very quickly
from this.”
Mr Cox insisted
he had nothing to do with the appointment of Ms Ryan, his former adviser, to
the position of chief executive. Mr Cox also dismissed suggestions his
appointment was a political one and said he has never sought to abuse his “privilege”
as chairman. “I have never solicited that any specific thing be done. Integrity
and values matter to me – I insist that at no stage did I seek the appointment
of any person.”
Limerick city and
county manager Conn Murray told the meeting that in his 34 years as a public
servant, he had never had his integrity questioned.
Nevertheless, Cox
in an earlier interview on local radio revealed that his Board of Limerick City
of Culture requested Limerick City Council to carry out “performance review” of
Karl Wallace’s work following a meeting late last year. He said the board had a
“very lengthy meeting” in early December, during which a number of issues were
raised, including a performance review of Karl Wallace’s work to date.
He said Mr
Wallace’s resignation followed a performance review requested by the board,
after which he claimed Mr Wallace failed to attend follow-up meetings due to
sick leave and holiday leave. “The board
asked that Limerick Corporation, as the employer of the artistic director,
because Karl Wallace is an employee of City Hall, would undertake a performance
review of the artistic director and his work over the period, and that that
performance review would then be discussed with the artistic director.
“Such a review
was undertaken. For a combination of reasons, to do with holiday leave and sick
leave, the artistic director was not in a position to make himself available
through the month of December when these issues were raised with him to discuss
any of the matters, with any of the personnel who would be relevant to such
discussions, and he subsequently decided on his own part to submit a
resignation. I think it’s dated December 30, submitted to Limerick Corporation.
“In the light of
the discussions that the board had and the many issues that were considered by
the board, a performance review was requested and one was carried out. I am not
familiar with the internal details of that, but I am aware that meetings were
sought between the employer and Karl Wallace, and that those meetings did not
take place.”
He said the
performance view was carried out by the human resources/personnel department in
Limerick City Council. Mr Cox also insisted that he will not be resigning from
his voluntary position. “I know there are those who would like to see me fold
in the face of criticism but I am determined to see this through.”
A further public
meeting is due to take place next week.
This is typical
gobbledegook from the likes of Cox, a right wing ideologue of the now defunct “Progressive
Democrats” which arose in the 1980’s as a focus of Thatcherism/Neo Liberalism in
Irish politics and promoted the de-regulation and privatisation programmes
which led to the country’s worst economic crisis ever in 2008, which we are
still paying for while Cox enjoys luxury living with his hefty Euro-Parliament
pension and consultancy fees from his monopoly cronies.
The main rumour
circulating currently is that Ryan, as she says, with no artistic background,
countered a performance approved by Wallace which gave a voice to teenagers
from one of the impoverished areas of the city (and some here are the worst in
the State) as “not the image we want to promote” leading to the breakdown of
relations which resulted in the resignations. We can see here that “Culture” as
viewed by bourgeois dilletantes like Ryan and Cox is the media sanitised
version and nothing to do with the reality of the lives of many citizens of
Limerick who are forced to suffer the indignities of unemployment and
deprivation under the policies of austerity now being imposed across Europe as a
result of the failed policies of neo-liberalism.
