A new vision for the arts sector in Ireland
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Who is Shona McCarthy and what roles does she hold in Ireland’s arts sector?
The Claire Burns Show on News Talk. With Aviva Insurance.
I'm delighted now to be joined in the studio by Shona McCarthy, who's soon to be Ireland's new Arts Council director. She's the current chair of the International Fund for Ireland and the former director of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Lovely to meet you, Shona. Thank you for coming in.
Thanks, Claire. It's great to be here in Dublin.
You busy enough? All of these titles. I mean you've you you did years with Edinburgh Fringe, which is a huge job because it sounds to me a little like herding cats the Edinburgh Fringe.
I mean th the I did nine years with the Fringe, which I think I was the longest serving chief executive. Normally that's a five year role. Um, but with COVID um and the massive impact that had on the festival, I just couldn't leave until it was all stabilised and in good shape. Um and I'm I've been very good all through my career at saying, Do you know, you've added the value that you can add or um, you know, that you're not good for this thing anymore and it's not good for you. It's too much.
Time to move. Yeah. Yeah, but it is uh when I say it's like herding cats, it's a very disparate organization, isn't it, Edinburgh Fringe?
Yeah, I mean the Fringe Society that I was chief executive of, there's no chief executive of the Edinburgh Fringe. It's uh it's such a Um I guess the best way I can describe it is like this incredible kind of cultural democracy that's made up of thousands of moving parts. There's no single curatorial voice. There's hundreds of curators. Um and it's a proper camolie. Um it doesn't matter whether you're at the start of your career or your Dame Judy Dench, you can be part of the Edinburgh fringe. Um so you Yeah, it was like absolutely like hurting pets because it's one of those things as well where everybody has an opinion and they're gonna tell you their opinion. It's
How did Shona’s experience leading the Edinburgh Fringe shape her view of cultural democracy?
And funding was a battle. I mean I think people would be surprised to hear that when it comes to Edinburgh.
Yeah, I mean the the fringe is kind of Entirely unique in that it people don't realize this, that it is a totally self-financing model. So the Fringe Society provides all these core services: the ticketing, the marketing, the promotion, the international connection, the community outreach and education, all of that. Um but its services are paid for by the registration fees that are paid for by every single show. So when COVID hit the entire entire Was wiped out overnight and it was the first time that we actually had to go to Scottish Government and say, Look, this is Scotland's festival. This is this has been going for over 70 years. It's this incredible thing that brings half a billion into the Scottish economy every year.
It's a huge economic driver as well as social and cultural value that it brings. Okay. Um so yeah, that was the first time I had to go and say Scottish Government, you know, do you want to keep this thing? 'Cause I'm just the temporary custodian of it. It really belongs to Edinburgh and Scotland.
So so you left that there about a year and a half ago? That's right. And then you became chair of the International Fund for Ireland. Yes. How did that happen?
I really wanted to come home um after after the fringe and I was being approached by all kinds of other big festivals around the world and stuff, but that was never my motivation. Um the fringe I the fringe drew me because of that inclusive thing, because of that cultural democracy that underpinned it. Because of its sort of exceptionalism, um So I wasn't interested in going to do another big festival and and I was very good at saying what I didn't want to do. And it was my partner um said to me one day, Look, you're really good at saying what you don't want to do. What do you actually want to do? Um and I remember saying to him, Look, you know, I I want to bring all of the kind of experience and learning back home and make a difference at home.
And I feel a real sense of unfinished business from back in my days of doing Imagine Belfast, the bid for Belfast to be European capital of culture, and then running the Dairy London Dairy UK City of Culture.
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Chapters
3 chapters
1
Who is Shona McCarthy and what roles does she hold in Ireland’s arts sector?
0:01–1:55
2
How did Shona’s experience leading the Edinburgh Fringe shape her view of cultural democracy?
1:55–5:43
3
What challenges did the Edinburgh Fringe face during COVID and how was government support secured?
5:43–11:44