Edwin Poots got little thanks for stonewalling demands for funding for the Irish Language Broadcast Fund in the North — which would effectively have gone out of business next Wednesday at its quarterly meeting because funds would have been exhausted.
Once Peter Robinson came into his inheritance, Edwin was shipped out and that giant of culture and beacon of reconciliation Gregory Campbell drafted in to replace him.
And now it seems, his best efforts to stymie the Fund have come to nought since Gordon Brown has divvied up the £6m — at the request of Gerry Adams during the recent crisis talks at Number 10.
Interestingly, this story broke first on Raidió Fáilte's 8am show where Gerry Adams was interviwed by phone. Over 50 jobs secured and a bright future for the Irish language broadcasting sector — and for TG4 which relies strongly on the Fund for its Ulster Irish output. A victory a day, indeed.
Meanwhile, Alex Maskey launched an exhibition of photos on the Auschwitz concentration camp at St Mary's University College last night. Pictured at the event are: Lord Mayor Tom Hartley, who opened the Auschwitz exhibition of photographs in St Mary’s University College with Cllr Alex Maskey MLA , Inga Radford — who lost seven brothers and her father in the death camps — and Lisa Leopold who organised the visits by local people to Auschwitz. “On Holocaust Memorial Day in 2004, I was challenged by the Lord Mayor and by the late David Ervine to organise a charter trip to Auschwitz for local people and I’ve been organising a charter trip every year since,” she says.
Pictured top is Mark Guilfoyle with his sons Kevin and Brian. The Guilfoyles were in the Cultúrlann in West Belfast as part of their Irish holidays and I managed to snap Mark before he set off for Stormont. A strong support of peace and justice in Ireland, and a staunch supporter of the Daily Ireland project, Mark has been rolling out the red carpet for Gerry Adams, Martin McGuinness and many others in Kentucky for some time now.
From 1991 to 1995, Mark served in the administration of Kentucky Governor Brereton C. Jones, serving at the highest levels of the administration as General Counsel to the Governor, Budget Director and Secretary of the Governor's Executive Cabinet. He, wife Casey, and their five children are heading to Sligo and then Ennis...roll out the green carpet if you see them coming.
