Make Ireland an Arts Hub

Denerick

We've got nothing to offer anyone in this economy, other than a low corporate tax rate and EU membership. Ireland needs something distinctive, something to differentiate it from the myriad other overburdened small EU economies.

Ireland could become an Arts hub. By initiating a liberal revolution in freedom of speech and expression, and publically supporting arts projects from around the world, Ireland could attract some of the best and brightest in the arts world here. In the pre WWI period Dublin was a literary capital of the world which rivalled Paris. We were at the cutting edge of the modern novel. We had a vibrant cultural language movement (Hyde and the Gaelic League) and a mysterious Celtic Twilight movement (Yeats and the Abbey Theatre) We had created a new kind of novel (Joyce) Dublin was a Bohemian town. It could be again. Dublin could be the Bohemian capital of Europe if it was given enough of a tug in the right direction.

Is it feasible? And if so, would it actually offer any kind of economic benefit?

noodler

Simple question.

Is there anywhere near enough revenue in it?

Denerick

noodler wrote: »

Simple question.

Is there anywhere near enough revenue in it?

I'd imagine it wouldn't cost much. We could liberalise our free speech laws and this alone would attract a certain crowd. We already have an artistic tax break, this could be extended for all nationalities. We could probably throw in an enticing tax break to attract some UK publishing houses. We'd probably do alright for not much cash.

noodler

I mean, is there enough revenue in literature?

Denerick

noodler wrote: »

I mean, is there enough revenue in literature?

No. The Irish literary revival did not make Ireland rich. And I doubt making us a modern Arts Hub will either. But it will give us an economic edge over competitors, 'something to pull out of our hat', so to speak.

noodler

There is probably some trickle-down advantages I am not seeing but this seems like more of a literary thread an economics one.

Most of the "cultural" capitals in Europe, say Prague, Paris etc seem to have their advantage based on history, architecture etc - I mean as a means to attract tourists etc anyway. I am not sure if that aspect is something we can copy (forgive me, I am just plucking tourism out of a hat as one of the more tangible gains I can envisage from such a policy since we can agree the tax take wouldn't be very significant).

Regardless, if something can be done at a low enough cost then even a low return may make it worthwhile.

EDIT: Lets see if tomorrow's ESRI QEC has any cultural recommendations!

Flamed Diving

Many tourists visit Dublin, in part, because of Yeats/Joyce. But I don't see how your idea could be of major use, unless it led to some kind of arts festival. But isn't that Galway's thing?