Behind the Scenes Archives

Behind the Scenes

NCAD’S CHAIR

September 22, 2022
THIS WEEK sees the election of a new chair of the National College of Art and Design (NCAD), following the recent vacancy on the... Read more »

SONGWRITERS’ SWAN SONG

September 22, 2022
THE FINAL creditors’ meeting has been held by the liquidator of the Irish Association of Songwriters, Composers and Authors (IASCA), which was set up... Read more »

MARTIN’S TIMELY GRANT

September 8, 2022
IT TURNS out that the arts department was particularly eager to support Brian Merriman’s International Dublin Gay Theatre Festival (IDGTF) after the Arts Council... Read more »

DEE FORBES’S PLEADINGS

September 8, 2022
THE INTRO to RTÉ’s autumn season launch is familiar to perusers of press releases from assorted Irish film festivals, Screen Ireland, IFTA and film... Read more »

IMMA’S PLURALITY PITCH

August 25, 2022
IT SHOULDN’T be too much longer before arts minister Catherine Martin finally gets around to filling the four vacancies on the IMMA board, three... Read more »

OSSIE KILKENNY’S CAMEO

August 25, 2022
You don’t hear too much from Ossie Kilkenny these days as he has taken quite a step back from the limelight since his time... Read more »

ROSE McHUGH’S THREE SEATS

August 11, 2022
LAST WEEK was the closing date for receipt of expressions of interest in (unremunerated) vacancies on the Rose McHugh-chaired board of the Crawford Art... Read more »

Mullingar Film Studio RTÉ Self-Employment

CASTING GROUCH

August 11, 2022
INTERESTED PARTIES are running the abacus over the spat between RTÉ and its non-staff contractors on the one hand and Revenue and the Department... Read more »

OVERDUE AT THE LIBRARY

July 28, 2022
A LITTLE late in the day, the board of the National Library of Ireland (NLI), chaired by former Eoin McVey, has advertised for a... Read more »

PAUL CHESNEY’S FILM STUDIO

July 28, 2022
YET ANOTHER proposed film studio project made it into the news this month, this one in Mullingar. How many studio schemes can the market... Read more »

EOIN COLFER’S PARTNER

July 14, 2022
INTERESTING TO see that super successful novelist Eoin Colfer has set up a company with theatre producer Breda Cashe. Not surprisingly, the venture isn’t... Read more »

NEW BLOOD AT NMI

July 14, 2022
WITH the closing date having passed for applicants to the board of the National Museum of Ireland (NMI), it will be interesting to see... Read more »

WAITING AT IMMA

June 30, 2022
BRIAN MACCRAITH was highly critical of the delay by the minister for media etc, etc, Catherine Martin, in publishing the Future of Media Commission... Read more »

BRIAN MERRIMAN’S GOOD NEWS

June 30, 2022
CONTRATULATIONS ARE in order for Brian Merriman and his crew at the International Dublin Gay Theatre Festival (IDGTF), who clearly have been receiving rather... Read more »

STANLEY’S DIVIDENDS

June 16, 2022
THIS WEEKEND sees the return of the Body & Soul festival at Ballinlough Castle, Co Westmeath, which, according to the Irish Times, provides “the... Read more »

DÉSIRÉE FINNEGAN’S DELAYED RELEASE

June 16, 2022
FANS OF Goldhawk will recall that Désirée Finnegan’s Screen Ireland had quietly commissioned a €75,000 ‘inaugural’ report into the cultural impact of the Section... Read more »

BRIAN MERRIMAN’S BAD REVIEW

June 2, 2022
THE REJECTION by the Arts Council appeals panel of a funding application from Brian Merriman’s International Dublin Gay Theatre Festival (IDGTF) probably came as... Read more »

CATHERINE MARTIN’S LA STORY

June 2, 2022
PRESUMABLY Leo Varadkar et al were envious of Catherine Martin’s recent LA junket, the purpose of which would have been to reassure the moguls... Read more »

NETFLIX’S LOBBYING

May 19, 2022
IT IS something of a paradox that, under legislation intended to bolster local and European culture against globalised mass media, the Irish taxpayer shells... Read more »

ANDREW NOONAN’S NEW MENU

May 19, 2022
AMONG THE number of festivals lined up for a presumably pandemic-free 2022 is the music/food mishmash that is the Big Grill Festival, now an... Read more »

CECELIA’S REVIEWS

May 5, 2022
IT HAS been a busy few weeks for scribbler Cecelia Ahern, whose short story collection, Roar, has been adapted for Apple TV+. Not everybody... Read more »

DÉSIRÉE FINNEGAN’S CARBON CALCULATOR

May 5, 2022
DÉSIRÉE FINNEGAN’S Screen Ireland is developing something of an addiction to policy papers. Earlier this year, it told Goldhawk that its report on the... Read more »

WRITERS CENTRE’S WINNING PLOT

April 20, 2022
NEXT WEEK sees the launch (online, natch) by the Irish Writers Centre (IWC) of the 2023 Novel Fair, which promises to introduce 12 lucky... Read more »

LUVVIES ARE REVOLTING

April 18, 2022
THE BOLSHY spear carriers at Irish Equity, the union representing assorted luvvies, clearly boosted by Gerry O’Brien sharing his contract from 1984 for a... Read more »

KIERAN’S CORRIGAN’S NAN

April 7, 2022
BACK IN 2019 Catherine Tate’s The Nan Movie was shot in Ireland with Goldhawk’s old pal Kieran Corrigan handling the €1m-€2m tax credit bounty... Read more »

PAT KIELY’S BIG DEAL

April 7, 2022
CONGRATULATIONS ARE in order for ex-Virgin Media television boss Pat Kiely, whose decision to go it alone is paying off. Kiely is a well-known... Read more »

DÉSIRÉE’S TOP-UPS

March 24, 2022
SCREEN IRELAND (SI) funding offers in the last quarter of 2021 are curiously low rent compared with previous awards. Presumably, the state agency, headed up... Read more »

CLOSING DATE FOR NCAD CHAIR

March 24, 2022
THIS WEEK sees the closing date for a vacancy on the board of the National College of Art and Design (NCAD), with the successful... Read more »

MCD’S RIGHT NOTES

March 10, 2022
LAST MONTH concert promoter extraordinaire Denis Desmond announced that it was “great to be back open”, promising to sell around 1.7 million tickets this... Read more »

Shane Houlihan Noel Smyth IKC Bob Geldof Landlord Ireland Neutrality Ukraine

GERRY O’BRIEN’S GRIPES

March 10, 2022
THE ACTORS keep threatening to act up as evidenced by a cross border union initiative this week. Whether a predictable ending is in store... Read more »

JIMMY CARR’S TIMING

February 24, 2022
THE ARTS Council may be wondering if it is a case of when rather than if it will be dragged into the increasingly febrile... Read more »

RAINBIRD’S SUCCESSOR?

February 10, 2022
FANS OF Goldhawk will not be surprised to see that arts minister Catherine Martin continues to allow the board of the National Gallery of... Read more »

DÉSIRÉE’S ‘DIVIDEND’

February 10, 2022
IT IS 30 years since Michael Twee Higgins launched the film and TV tax break, now known as Section 481. The scheme is supposedly... Read more »

COLM TÓIBÍN GETS THE GIG

January 27, 2022
THE ANNOUNCEMENT by the Arts Council of scribbler Colm Tóibín as the new Laureate for Irish Fiction is unlikely to surprise too many people... Read more »

GER CONNOLLY’S HEADACHE

January 27, 2022
THERE WAS a bit of a plot twist for Ger Connolly, director of the Irish Film Classification Office, whose operation has suffered an income... Read more »

ABBEY’S ‘NEW’ CAST

January 13, 2022
THE ABBEY Theatre has started the new year with its board no longer limping along on one leg, thanks to some late-in-the-day appointments immediately... Read more »