Article Category: Behind the Scenes

Anne Clarke’s opera award

August 24, 2016
CONGRATULATIONS to theatre producer Anne Clarke who goes from success to success. The Arts Council has now greenlighted a huge €½m grant from its... Read more »

DARRYL DOWNEY’S SAD SONG

August 24, 2016
WITH Electric Picnic set to kick off next month the festival season proper draws to a close. Meanwhile, the fall-out continues from the last-minute... Read more »

HUMPHREYS’S ARTS COUNCIL ADVERT

August 10, 2016
THE MINISTER for Arts, Heather Humphreys, has finally got around to filling those empty seats at the Arts Council, although Goldhawk hopes the unfortunate... Read more »

NOW THAT’S ENTERTAINMENT

July 28, 2016
THEY SAY “there’s no business like show business” and this is strongly supported by the latest healthy flow of public money into the coffers... Read more »

FILLING THOSE TOP ARTS JOBS

July 28, 2016
WITH THE renewal of the contract of James Hickey as chief executive of the Irish Film Board (IFB) this month, a pattern is starting... Read more »

IMMA’S EXPANDING COLLECTION

July 15, 2016
THIS WEEK sees the opening of an exhibition at IMMA featuring four works by Irish artists that have been acquired by the Hennessy Cognac-funded... Read more »

TENDER TIME

July 15, 2016
A COUPLE of tenders have been advertised this month in the arts world – one for the National Museum of Ireland (NMI) and the... Read more »

CASTING DELAY AT FILM BOARD

July 2, 2016
ONE OF the various state boards with a long-standing vacancy is the Irish Film Board (IFB). In December last year, Minister for Arts, Heritage... Read more »

HEATHER HUMPHREYS’S PRIORITIES

July 2, 2016
WITH Heather Humphreys coming under fire for the apparent downgrading of the arts portfolio in her department, she has finally moved to appoint the... Read more »

GRÁINNE SEOIGE’S WINDING-UP

July 2, 2016
SPARE A thought for RTÉ siren and high-profile Gaeilgeóir Gráinne Seoige, who has had a tough time recently. The latest news is that a... Read more »

AFTER COLGAN AT THE GATE

June 17, 2016
WHEN NEWS of Michael Colgan’s retirement as director of the Gate Theatre surfaced last week, media attention quickly focused on his legacy. But the... Read more »

STAR WARS Vs THE TAXPAYER

June 17, 2016
AN INTERESTING detail was included in the congratulatory press release issued by the Irish Film Board (IFB) at the start of the month, when... Read more »

ORLAITH McBRIDE’S CONTRACT

June 17, 2016
The plenary session of the Sheila Pratschke-chaired Arts Council (which is currently three members shy) is set to discuss the renewal of McBride’s contract.... Read more »

LENNY’S ARTS SALVO

June 1, 2016
HARDLY HAD the ink dried on Heather Humphreys’s appointment as Minister for Farms and Arts, than Oscar-nominated film director Lenny Abrahamson launched a salvo... Read more »

CIARÁN LENNON’S STUDIO

June 1, 2016
SPARE A thought for artist and Aosdána member, Ciarán Lennon, who has been embroiled in a legal spat over access to his Dublin studio.... Read more »

ARTS COUNCIL ON THE MOVE?

June 1, 2016
COULD the Arts Council be moving out of Merrion Square? This may depend on the outcome of the appeal by its landlord – moneybags... Read more »

JIM SHERIDAN’S ‘SECRET’ PROBLEM

May 18, 2016
IT’S A far cry from 2003 for film director Jim Sheridan. Back then, he was finishing his autobiographical opus, In America, and fronting a... Read more »

FEARGHAL O’BOYLE’S EXAMINATION

May 18, 2016
THE PUBLISHING business in Ireland is a tough one and the latest company to feel the heat is The Columba Book Service Ltd, which... Read more »

DISHARMONY FOR ROYALTY AGENCIES

May 5, 2016
INTERESTING to see two of the music royalty agencies facing off over the proper amounts due to performers and record labels. Record Artists Actors... Read more »

FILMMAKERS FOLLOW THE MONEY

May 5, 2016
WHOEVER LANDS the arts gig in Enda Kenny’s limbo government will be faced with plenty of begging bowls and nowhere more so than the... Read more »

LIMERICK’S TROJAN HORSE

April 21, 2016
WHEN plans were being hatched to turn Limerick’s former Dell plant into a film studio, there was plenty of PR guff about Ireland’s drastic... Read more »

ELIZABETH GARRAHY’S DURROW DRAMA

April 21, 2016
FOLLOWING A trip to the District Court to get an extension to file its overdue accounts, the charity Arts For Peace (AFP) has got... Read more »

ED GUINEY’S AWARD WINNING PERFORMANCE

April 7, 2016
ONE OF the obligatory functions of a state agency is to ‘lay’ its annual report before the Oireachtas in order that deputies and senators... Read more »

Helen O’Neill’s Seat

April 7, 2016
THE LATEST addition to the board of Limerick University’s Concert Hall is Ballsbridge-based academic Helen O’Neill, hailing from UCD, where she is Professor Emeritus... Read more »

PHANTOM’S EXPENSIVE GHOST

April 7, 2016
THE INVESTORS in TXFM (formerly Phantom105.2) have taken a bath, with Denis O’Brien failing to escape the worst of the hit despite having got... Read more »

WATCHING THE DETECTIVES

March 24, 2016
THE RETURN of author Ken Bruen’s Jack Taylor detective series to Galway has largely gone under the radar, perhaps because of the series’ chequered... Read more »

KCLR Sue Nunn

March 24, 2016
THE SUNDAY TIMES got a frosty reception when it lobbed in some queries about a dispute between radio station KCLR in Carlow/Kilkenny and its... Read more »

A VISUAL CHALLENGE

March 24, 2016
THERE HAVE been a number of comings and goings in Carlow’s arts sector in recent weeks, with changes at the Éigse Carlow Arts Festival... Read more »

LIGHTS, CAMERA, BUBBLE

March 9, 2016
TO ALL appearances, it’s full steam ahead for John Kelleher, Siún ní Raghallaigh and Ossie Kilkenny’s Troy Studios play at the former Dell plant... Read more »

COUNCIL’S “CONCERN”

March 9, 2016
WHILE THE backlash against the Abbey Theatre’s testosterone-fuelled 1916 centenary programme – ‘Waking The Nation’ – was well-ventilated, it turns out that the members... Read more »

OPERA IRELAND’S FINAL SHOW

March 9, 2016
STRANGE GOINGS-ON at the defunct Opera Ireland, where a skip-load of documents have just been filed in the Companies Registration Office in order to... Read more »

IRISH NEED NOT APPLY

February 25, 2016
WITH THE Oscar hype keeping the Irish film sector centre stage (well, just behind the election), the absence of females in Irish Film Board-funded... Read more »

YET ANOTHER NCAD DIRECTOR

February 25, 2016
STILL NO sign of the 2013 accounts for the National College of Art and Design (NCAD), but at least the latest interim director is... Read more »

The Other awards ceremony

February 25, 2016
THERE WAS a time when a relatively brief eruption of showbiz excess appeared in the press to coincide with the BAFTAs and the Oscars. Now,... Read more »

BRIAN SPOLLEN’S MOMENTUM

February 25, 2016
INTERESTING TO see MCD promoter Brian Spollen setting up a company to run the Life dance music festival in Belvedere House, Co Westmeath, this... Read more »

Evicting Paddy Dunning

February 11, 2016
‘MR TEMPLE BAR’ Paddy Dunning is used to being on the wrong end of bad news in recent years as a number of his... Read more »