The director of the Hunt Museum in Limerick has called on the city's corporation to act with energy and vision to beat Cork, Galway and Waterford for the European City of Culture title in 2005.
Applications must be filed with the Department of Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands by the end of the month. Some u£5.8 million in funding will be available to the successful bidder. Dublin is excluded because the capital held the title in 1991.
Mr Ciaran MacGonigal, director of the museum, has written to the city manager, Mr Brendan Keating, on the issue.
"We have only a month. That includes its final preparation and its presentation," he said.
The city was up against "at least two very highly organised cities", he said, and an outside "champion" was needed to attract corporate sponsorship and promote the city for visitors.
He said leading Limerick figures such as Richard Harris, Terry Wogan, J.P. McManus or the Pulitzer Prize-winner, Frank McCourt, should be used to promote the city abroad.
A working committee was needed to make imaginative suggestions, he added.
Mr MacGonigal was chairman of the art advisory committee of Dublin Corporation for 11 years and served on Dublin European City of Culture committees.
The Mayor of Limerick, Mr John Ryan, said he was determined the city would win the application.
"We are serious about showing Europe the cultural intensity and diversity of Limerick," he said.
Galway, which has built up a reputation for the arts centred on its annual summer festival, and Cork, which has a well-developed arts infrastructure, will be the major rivals for the title.
The assistant town clerk in Waterford, Mr Paddy Power, said the city would be giving the application "a good shot".
"It would not be the first time that the obvious candidate did not come home first," he said.
The Government will make a maximum of u£5 million available to the successful applicant provided that it does not exceed 50 per cent of the overall cost of the event.
EU funding of about one million euros (u£787,564) is also likely to be on offer. Mr MacGonigal suggested that events which could be mooted in an application are a major re-enactment of the 17th-century sieges of the city, a series of concerts led by the Limerick band The Cranberries, and a major decorative programme for the Shannon.