Dr Brian Farrell, the broadcaster and Emeritus Professor of Politics in UCD, has been appointed chairman of the Arts Council. The composition of the new council was announced yesterday by the Minister for Arts, Gaeltacht, Heritage and the Islands, Ms de Valera.
Appointing the members of the Arts Council, which formulates policy and allocates grants for the arts, is among the most important duties of the Arts Minister. Ms de Valera said yesterday that the constitution of the new council reflected three identified areas of priority: the arts in the Irish language, the arts and the disabled, and the development of the arts in the regions.
It had been difficult, she said, to choose the members of the council because there was such a wealth of "talented and committed individuals" working in the arts. However, her chosen chairman, Prof Farrell, is not among them, being best known to the public at large as the presenter of RTE's flagship current affairs television programme, Prime Time. He has also published extensively on Irish government and politics.
Although none of his honours and achievements reflects an arts focus, he explained yesterday that he had had a strong interest in the arts from early childhood, when he was taken regularly to the Abbey and Gate Theatres. He was heavily involved in Dramsoc at UCD and one summer he had a walk-on part with the Longford Company at the Gate.
He has long been a lover of music, both classical and traditional, he said, and was lucky in that he went to school at Colaiste Mhuire in Parnell Square, Dublin, and could easily foster an interest in visual arts by visiting the Municipal Gallery. His schooling also made him a fluent Irish-speaker.
Asked about his philosophy of the arts, he countered: "I wouldn't pretend to offer anything as pretentious as a philosophy of the arts." But he added that the strategies he would like to implement would back up the areas of priority identified by the Minister in appointing the council.
The two members of the outgoing council who have been reappointed are Mr Proinsias Mac Aonghusa, broadcaster, writer and a former president of Conradh na Gaeilge and Bord na Gaeilge, and Mr Paul McGuinness, manager of U2, founder of Principle Management and co-owner of Ardmore Studios.
There is strong regional diversity among the council members. Ms Mary Brady is artistic director of Firkin Crane Dance Development Agency in Cork; Mr Ciaran Carson is a Belfast-based poet; Ms Maud Cotter is a Cork-based sculptor; Mr Noel Crowley is Clare County Librarian and founder of the CLASP local studies group; Mr Brendan Flynn is a founder of Clifden Community Arts Week; Ms Maire Ni Riain, from Limerick, is national treasurer of the Amateur Drama Council of Ireland; composer Ms Jane O'Leary is founder and director of the Concorde new music group; Ms Una O Murchu is artistic director of the Bru Boru Theatre and Performing Group, based in Cashel; Mr T.V. Honan is a founding member of Waterford Spraoi and a board member of Garter Lane Arts Centre; Ms Siobhan Ni Eanaigh is a partner in the Drogheda-based McGarry Ni Eanaigh firm of architects.
The Dublin representation includes Ms Jane Gogan, a film producer and commissioning editor of TV3; Ms Emer O'Kelly, an RTE broadcaster and theatre critic for the Sunday Independent; and Mr Patrick Sutton, executive director of the Gaiety School of Acting.
Mr Seamus O Cinneide, Jean Monnet Professor of European Social Policy at NUI Maynooth, brings personal experience of disability to the council and has been active in encouraging arts activity among the disabled through his chairmanship of Very Special Arts, Ireland.