There was stirring stuff from Jack McConnell of the Scottish Labour Party and Alwyn Roberts, vice-chair of the Arts Council of Wales, at the Arts Council of Northern Ireland's twoday conference in Enniskillen last week. "The Celtic fringe" and its arts were beginning to reassert themselves, they said, against nationalism as envisioned by Margaret Thatcher. McConnell outlined his hopes for the new Scottish parliament, and Roberts spoke on the possible effect and influence the new Welsh assembly might have on the arts.

The other speakers included Prof Brigid Hadfield of the Faculty of Law, QUB, who gave a detailed analysis of what devolution would mean to Northern Ireland's system of government.

Unfortunately for the ACNI, the conference was soon ambushed by Gaels of the local variety when the director of the ULTACH Trust, Aodan Mac Poilin, offered a sharp analysis of the council's failure to provide properly for the Irish language. The trust is a government-funded body for the promotion of the Irish language on a cross-community basis and is located in Belfast.

The ACNI's new chair, Prof Brian Walker, was forced onto the defensive and repeated the council's worn mantra that it supported the arts in Irish and applications from writers of Irish and, indeed, of Ullans/Ulster-Scots/Scots spoken in Ulster. (Who they?)

Somewhat ironically, the ACNI advertised for two part-time positions to deal with music and literature during the conference. Previously, both remits had been the single responsibility of the poet Ciaran Carson, now retired.

Carson was the only officer in the council who could speak Irish. No mention was made in either post of a need for an interest in, liking for, or even a passing knowledge of, the languages of the North.

It is difficult to escape the conclusion that the council has no vision regarding Irish, is not about to embrace any change in its attitude towards it and has no enterprise in imagining how the arts in Irish might begin to illuminate the North.

The conference in the Killyhevlin Hotel, was entitled Visioning the Future. Billed as "non-specific" by the council, themes addressed included Embracing Change, Enterprise and the Arts, The Arts and Conflict, Education and Youth, and Cultural Clustering. Over 200 delegates from the arts and local councils attended.

The first session of the conference, Embracing Change, was particularly appreciated by the audience.