WHEN THE writer Colm Tóibín spoke recently about the “power and primacy of culture” as a tool of international diplomacy, he choose to single out the work of writers in the creation of an “image of Ireland in Europe which is more enduring and embedded, more serious and deeply influential” than the headlines reporting our economic miseries that have been in circulation of late.
That view of Ireland’s major contribution to world literature – and the role of those writers in forging an identity for this country – was powerfully endorsed through the designation of Dublin as a Unesco City of Literature. However, other art forms such as film, animation and our contemporary and traditional music have also been creating a sense of Ireland that leaves a deep impression on those who experience it.
It could be said that it was the thoughts of writers and artists that helped to spark this State into being – their successors today can and should make their own contribution to the process of renewal that is needed to restore self-belief.
Tóibín’s was only one of many voices declaring for the primacy of the arts and their potential – the more valuable aspect of that potential is not, however, how they can be hijacked as part of some kind of opportunistic brand-building exercise but in helping society to probe its recent failures and in articulating a vision of a future that avoids the same mistakes and provides something better. But there is another reason to support and value local culture – it could quite easily vanish under the corroding influence of the purely commercial, global mass culture that is beamed at us from every direction and is likely to put celebrity at its centre.
The Government, by keeping its Arts Council funding cut to 5 per cent in the Budget, has clearly acknowledged the role our distinct culture and traditions can play; and while the economic and tourism benefits may have been the most likely determining factor, it would be good to believe that their social value was also taken into account.
Heritage, on the other hand, was less lucky and severe cutbacks in that Budget will have damaging long-term effects and put the preservation of our archaeological and architectural inheritance at risk.
It would be foolish, however, to think that there won’t be challenges for the arts, with spending set to fall further as part of the four-year recovery plan, the council will have to set priorities that won’t please everybody. What is essential, though, is that there is clarity and clear communication on those priorities.
Both Fine Gael and Labour, the parties that can take credit for establishing the first full-time ministry, are to deliver their own arts policies before the coming election. They might pay heed to the words of W B Yeats in 1926: “I doubt if any nation can become prosperous unless it has national faith . . . I am convinced that as much wealth can come from the intellect of Ireland as will come from the soil and that the one will repay cultivation as much as the other”.