So we have had the MTV Awards Show. We have had the Titanic Hoopla. We have DerryLondonderry (no to Hell with saying “Londonderry” City of Culture nonsense. The G8 (don’t ha just love it?) Summit later this year.
And seemingly we MIGHT have the start of the Tour of Italy (Giro) cycle race in 2014. Seemingly this is already being negotiated. By whom? Is anyone being paid a fee to do this?
This is the latest Circus.
But you see the funny side. Cycling…a sport trying to rehabilitate itself. Where better…than Norn Iron….a start outside Belfast City Hall….and the Prologue gets under way with the drop of the Italian flag. A flag that will concern Willie Frazer.
Keeping An Eye On the Czar of Russia 
I’m sorry FJH, but what is your point here? Would you prefer if none of these things came to the North?
I would like to know HOW they come to the North. Who exactly is in negotiation with the UCI? Is it an events company lobbying on behalf of the Tourist Office, the Government or the City Council.
Will any of those bodies get an invoice…and if so from whom?
Did the city of Culture “award” go to Derry on the same basis?
Who makes these bids?
Why is there a steady stream of good news stories as a counter balance or fig leaf to the fragility of our institutions?
That’s fair enough and questions should be asked as to funding etc, however, do you want the event to come to the North? You could of course go for a FOI request on these matters.
Re the City of Culture, it’s hardly kicked off yet you appear to be consigning it to the dustbin, I’m sorry but I find this unnecessarily negative even by your standards.
Derry City Council made the bid to be city of culture
We’re any professional management companies involved in this or any other bid?
‘Were any professional management companies involved in this or any other bid?’
A quango was created for marketing, which should be common knowledge (http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/northern-ireland/derry-culture-staff-set-for-merger-talks-16221657.html) and was then folded back into the Council as they were not happy with them and their performance.
Usually a separate company is set up for these events which is owned by the council but not directly controlled by them as it is normally in the best interests of all that councillors or aldermen are not given control over what shows, pieces, performers etc are brought in as this would allow for people, completely unqualified in a specific area with no previous experience to be directors of something. Some councillors may be appointed as non-executive directors so as to give outside and some what independent advice on decisions, however, as sole shareholders they would have fuill details of all that goes on at board meetings and in relation to the day to day workings of the company. As a former director of a company (not in the arts btw) you are supposed to be able to show you have the requisite skills, qualifications and experience to run a specific type of company as part of your director’s duties, otherwise you may be open to prosecution for decisions made if things go wrong.
Further, could you imagine if someone like Ruth Patterson was given control over something like what performers are to come to Belfast?
Apologies for perhaps coming across as somewhat tetchy FJH, but we can always find out money spent and on what if we check Companies House or Council minutes. Ask one of the SDLP councillors in Belfast to ask questions at a council meeting, that’s what they’re there for 🙂
These are all positive, and to be welcomed.
No ….implementation of the Good Friday Agreemnt in a timely manner would have been a positive thing. A series of “feel good” events is meaningless.
Belfast City Council applied to host MTV awards. Was very successful.
Who did the negotiating???
All these high profile events are to distract from lack of progress on REAL issues.
There are always real issues to deal with but that doesn’t mean everything else has to put on hold. Don’t you want people north of the border to enjoy events? They get precious few as it is. Good to see them finally getting a bit more confidence to apply for these things.
I live in the North….and I like to enjoy myself.
Better still I like my sons and grandchildren to enjoy themselves. There is a place for that ….but it is secondary to dealing with the fundamental problems here.
Derry and Belfast have been sold pups….a bit like the episode of the Simpsons where the slick salesman shows up in Springfield and convinces them they need a monorail system.
I remember reading about how in the 1970s the NIO went to enormous efforts to bring British celebs over to the “Province” to convince everyone back home how “normal” things were. Terrified stars were flown in all VIP, surrounded by security, taken over to UTV or BBC to do a star-turn, maybe show their face at some carefully stage-managed public event and then back home again.
Sometimes I wonder have things turned full circle? It all just seems so stage-managed. Constructed and artificial.
Folks,
I don’t see it as an either or decision regarding implementation of the GFA and SAA and the ‘circuses’ as some would like us to believe.
I like the fact that FJH is highlighting all the crap that goes on here, however, I would say that all that is going on, the managed Justin Bieber stuff and the rioting is the REAL NORN IRON.
I had the great pleasure of working in Queens Students Union for 5 years from 2001 to 2006 and worked many, many gigs, festivals and other events. I also worked for a massive outside caterer and hospitality company in the Kings Hall and elsewhere. I have friends who are in the arts community and work tirelessly and for little if any cash to try and get events here from the big names to that which few have heard of and is very niche, hence why I kind of take it personally when I see these posts, sorry, but I do. Then there is someone like Willie Jack who owns the Duke of York and Dark Horse cafe who has built that bar from nothing into a living museum and a cultural hub, who also treats and pays his staff very well (note, I worked for him many moons ago and friends still do), these people are making Belfast better and have helped transform it from sleepy back water into something much more vibrant. I would have the fortune of meeting some of these performers afterwards (ex used to run a few things in the Black Box) and they genuinely loved coming to Belfast and still do.
Do I like how the media spin these events as the ‘real Norn Iron’, no, however, I am glad that people such as my friends work to try and get these events here, to try and get people into Belfast and elsewhere and they are the type of people I wish there was a lot more of back home as they work day in, day out to make Belfast better.
Belfast is a great city to go to and the events of the past few weeks has made it difficult for someone like myself to say ‘it is a great city’, but I won’t stop ‘preaching the gospel’ so to speak.