I suggested (18.03.10) that I might have heard good news concerning an taoiseach's attitude towards the Arts, as expressed in the White House during his Patrick's Day visit.

But did I speak too soon?

In his first and, in so far as I can see, his only action since his return from the USA, taoiseach Cowan, in his damp-squib of a cabinet reshuffle, 'demoted' Mary Hanafin from her position as minister for Social and Family Affairs to minister for Tourism, Culture and Sport, where she replaced Martin Cullen who had limped off the pitch.

(No, our taoiseach doesn't do much beyond looking grumpy. In fact he looks, and behaves, as though he has a perpetual hang-over: maybe he has?)

Now, this must certainly have been bad news for Mary, but, whatever else about her, she is a fighter and an able media performer.
So, maybe it won't be such bad news for the 'arts' and 'culture', whatever about 'sport' because, to be sure, the sector will need to fight to retain its share of any funding that remains following the government's mindless, but unswerving, support for the defunct banks and its banker and developer cronies.

We will have to wait to see what we shall see....but it was hardly confirmation of the sentiments the taoiseach uttered in Washington.

But what is certainly not good news, is the demise of Murray O'Laoire Architects.

Of all the larger architectural practices it has been one of the most innovative and creative. Typically their design teams were young and capable of less obvious and formulaic solutions. These people will dissipate, many of them, one fears, beyond these shores - a loss that will further impair the prospects for the country's recovery.

It is bad news for the likes of me too. Not only were they the potential providers of work - I did work with them on one project - the Presidential Suite at Dublin airport (back in the days when there was money for such vanities!) but their closure may be seen as a snapshot of the health of the more creative end of the design (and manufacturing) industries in Ireland. - They are, we are, struggling - if not dyeing from a lack of work, support and funding, all of which ceased to be available, almost on an instant when the banks collapsed, like the turning-off of a tap.

Is it not truly astonishing that government will sacrafice the nations wealth, for a generation and more, in a futile effort to shore-up a broken banking system and the bankers whom, they themselves suspect of criminal actions, but not a penny to support the engines that will drive the economy in the future?

During the property boom the banks lent money to the developers, the builders and those who purchased the developments without a question asked while government scooped-in and squandered the duties and taxes.
At that time, for their sick cycle of greed to be perpetuated, they needed the services of Murray O'Laoire and their like.

But now, in an hour of need, will the banks, which we now own, lend money, or the government provide supports, to retain and sustain the invaluable skill-sets of a company like of Murray O'Laoire?

We all know the answer.

Until we start to listen to and empower the likes of John McGuinness TD, Michael O'Leary and Shane Ross we will continue to destroy, not only the Murray O'Laoire's of this country but the very will of countless, able people who believe in this nation and earnestly want to help to work it of its current difficulties.

Go away, Mr Cowen (I could use the language favoured by your tanaiste but I will maintain my manners) and be grumpy and futile elsewhere. And take your tired, cowardly, self-interested and sycophantic cabinet colleagues with you.