Sir, - Some months ago your Front Row arts column carried a piece about exciting proposals to develop Barlow House, the historic former Garda station in Drogheda, into an arts building under the management of the excellent Droichead Arts Centre. Now, reports are circulating that £400,000 of Interreg funding earmarked for the proposed development is in danger of being lost because a decision on the building's future is still not forthcoming from the Office of Public Works.
The case for developing Barlow House as an arts resource is overwhelming. Drogheda is an old, historic town with a young and fast-changing culture. For years it suffered the reputation of being a depressed community - due to the collapse of traditional industry and the occasional overspill of the troubles of Northern Ireland into Co Louth. In recent years, however, it has come to be identified as the town with the most vibrant streetwise cultural scene on the east coast.
This is largely because of its reputation as a carnival music centre, with its annual samba festival. There is a vibrant visual arts and craft movement in the immediate region, not to mention a resurgent drama scene, with the venerable St Brigid's Amateur Society (50 years old this year); the highly regarded Droichead Youth Theatre; Calipo, a developing young independent company; and now our own community-based professional company, Upstate.
Other towns have their great houses, concert halls and cathedrals of culture. Drogheda has a vibrant, people-centred culture that thrives beneath its historic walls, but it needs infrastructural development, as well as some incentive to preserve its architectural heritage. What a shame if its oldest Georgian house passes out of the hands of its creative young community due to dithering in a distant Government department. - Yours, etc., Declan Gorman, Artistic Director, Upstate Theatre Project,
Fair Street, Drogheda.