Poet and councillor speak out in support of Arts Centre work

Poet, Marty Mulligan, and former Mullingar Town Council cathaoirleach, Ruth Illingworth, have said this week that a review carried into Mullingar’s Arts Centre is unfair, and inaccurate, and that it doesn’t reflect accurately the scale, nor the quality of the work going on at the venue.“I never really consider this as an arts centre: I see this as being like the Town Hall Theatre in Galway: it’s community theatre at its best. There is no place else doing exactly what is being done here in Mullingar,” said Marty Mulligan.“I would be fully behind the work going on in the Arts Centre, particularly in the last few years, since my involvement in Electric Picnic. When I brought in theatre to the Picnic, the first person I rang was Sean Lynch, and he brought Rail Theatre to the Festival, with their biggest production, ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’,” said Marty.“In the theatre world, people know what’s happening here. Mullingar Arts Centre is a proper, professional theatre venue, and then you have all the work that is going on with the children in the Arts Academy.“My son is in the Academy, and it’s unreal what they’re into: theatre, any form of song, and dance, and I think it’s amazing what’s going on.”Mr. Mulligan pointed out that since theatre was introduced to Electric Picnic, the Rail Theatre company - which is the Arts Centre’s professional troupe - has performed there every years.“This year, they have two productions at the Picnic,” he continued. “No other theatre is doing that, and it’s not happening just because I’m from Mullingar.”“This whole report is a mess,” is the view of Cllr. Ruth Illingworth, who has said she is disappointed that despite being cathaoirleach of the Town Council when the report was being compiled, she wasn’t interviewed.Nor, she continued, was she - or anyone else she knows of - made aware that they could make submissions to Caoimhin Corrigan, who compiled the report.“I was disappointed not to have been asked to, because Sean Lynch had passed on my name and contact details to the man doing the report, and at the time, I was chairman of the Town Council, and I would have made a submission had I known that one could do so.”What is odd, she indicated, is the fact that the report doesn’t list the names of those who were interviewed, nor of those who made submissions, beyond stating that three members of staff and all the board members were interviewed.Cllr. Illingworth said the report seemed “quite biased” and “somewhat unfair”.“One of the things I don’t particularly like about the report is that there’s an awful lot of criticism being directed at Sean Lynch,” she said.“What I also find disturbing is the recommendations as to how the new board should be selected: it suggests most should be selected by the County Manager, and I think that gives far too much power to the Manager.”She added that she has never actually seen the Manager at any performance of any kind in the Arts Centre.Cllr. Illingworth said she had had “the clear understanding” that when the County Building was renovated as part of the provision of Mullingar’s new civic offices, there was going to be a new gallery space provided to the Centre.“And now that doesn’t seem to have happened, and all there is there is one room that is totally inadequate.“I don’t understand what happened and why they thought one small room was going to be adequate when it clearly wasn’t.”Cllr. Illingworth said that the Centre does invaluable work in nurturing new talent, and she said the Rail Theatre Company, which operates from the Centre, is of nearly-professional standard.“I’m sorry the report made no real mention of what’s being done there,” said Cllr. Illingworth.