A leading Galway poet has hit out at the way in which the city is preparing to stage the 2020 European Capital of Culture event, saying the focus has shifted away from what was envisaged and that the final project will differ greatly from the initial plan.
Aosdána member Rita Ann Higgins has released a new work: 'Capital of Cock-a-Leekie Inferno (9 Circles of 2020 Hell)', which examines the way in which plans for the European designation have been progressing, since Galway was awarded the title in 2016.
She said she was moved to write the poem amid frustration at the manner in which the Galway 2020 company was overseeing preparations.
Ms Higgins expressed particular concern at recent funding cuts to local arts groups working on projects, which she described as "offensive and highly insulting" to the artists who had contributed to the Galway bid.
The poet said the bid book presented by Galway was what secured the designation from European judges but that the year-long celebration of culture looked like it would bear little resemblance to what was first proposed.
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Over the course of the poem, the initial excitement and involvement of those involved in the arts sector in the city gives way to a detached and ultimately despondent view of the preparations.
While "painters, poets, and those with a passion for purple prose… joined the ranks", Ms Higgins writes that "no one was driving the bus" and that the wheels soon came off the wagon.
The work catalogues a series of problems that have dogged the Capital of Culture preparations, including the departure of a Chief Executive, a Creative Director and a "Mr X [who] was offered the apple but the apple was snatched from him unbitten"; a reference to a business engagement position with Galway 2020, for which a contract was offered but subsequently withdrawn.
As the poem nears a conclusion, events of recent weeks take centre stage, when arts groups involved in the initial bid are told "they had to chop lots of percentages off their original projects".
Budget cuts have impacted on several of the projects slated for 2020 and earlier this month representatives from the Galway artistic community met with City and County Council officials to voice their concerns about the impact this would have on their plans.
Ms Higgins writes that they have been told "take it and burn, or leave it and burn".
The poem envisages a "land of empty" where "no one mentioned poem or painting or play and …no art of any kind… to lighten the heart on a dreary Galway day."
It is the second time Ms Higgins has written about the 2020 European Capital of Culture.
In 2016 she was commissioned by Galway City Council to "cast a critical eye" over the city, ahead of the Galway 2020 bid.
That poem, 'Our Killer City', predicted the Capital of Culture bid would end up with the city being "crowned the capital of fools".
The poem was originally due to have been included in the Galway bid book but was omitted from the final version.
'Our Killer City' also prefaced the tone of her latest work, when she wrote "To hell with local artists, what do they bring to the city?"
Ms Higgins says her new poem was "sparked by Dante's 'Inferno'" and was a continuation of the topics she addressed in her 2016 commission.
She says she is still hopeful that Galway can deliver a successful European Capital of Culture but that she has no confidence in those leading the project.
She also expressed concern that the planning stage was focussed on business, to the detriment of culture.
And she contrasted this situation to the "endless hours of work" that arts groups in Galway had put in, to develop and produce work that would properly showcase the region’s rich artistic tradition.
Read poem in full: Capital of Cock-a-Leekie Inferno (9 Circles of 2020 Hell)
