FINTAN VALLELY,
Madam, - What a magnificent venue is the new Helix concert hall at DCU, and what a vision for the performing arts of the future.
President McAleese opened it with profuse praise too, the dignitaries glowing with pride in their achievement. But the inaugural concert programme left this pundit gobsmacked.
Here is a venue open to all forms of music, presented as a "national" asset, yet what was represented in its opening programme? The same boring old exclusivism: the orchestra, European classical music, and a couple of jaded, orchestrated "Irish" tunes. No pop, no jazz - and no traditional performers. Why not?
Is the Helix's director ashamed of them? Is someone of the talent of Mary Bergin, Mick O'Brien, Matt Molloy or Frankie Gavin not considered up to scratch? Or too hick? Is it about clothes - or about silly tunes?
Indigenous music is OK as long as it is mediated (legitimised, sanitised?) by an orchestra. What pomposity! New concert hall, yes, but same old leaden prejudice and national inferiority complex. - Yours, etc.,
FINTAN VALLELY, Academy for Irish Cultural Heritages, University of Ulster, Derry.