Tis another reason to love Ireland

Well, it's St. Patrick's Day, and I have all those loaves of soda bread to prove it.

As anyone who knows me knows, I love Ireland. I have been there many times, and over the decades have found that there's so much to love about this beautiful country. Starting with that beauty. Sure, there are slummy areas in the big cities and mildewly little villages that the world has passed by, but the countryside is gorgeous, the cliffs breathtaking, the views stunning. 

And, no, I'm not forgetting the people. Like anyplace else, Ireland has plenty of a-holes, bores, droogs, snobs, jerks, and misanthropes. But for the most part, I've found the Irish welcoming and friendly, intelligent and good-humored, interesting and aware of the world beyond Ireland, and generous in spirit. 

Amazingly, the food in Ireland is very good, which I wouldn't have guessed ahead of time based on my Irish grandmother's culinary skill, nor based on my first roots trip in 1973 when a) the pre-Celtic tiger country was still very poor; and b) I had little money to spend on food - if there'd been any decent meals to be had. 

I love Irish music, Irish literature, Irish art, Irish fillums. 

The Irish do, too.

And they've got a new scheme to prove it. (That, by the way, is "scheme" in the Irish and British sense: a program or a plan, not in the usual American sense of a sneaky, underhanded, often illegal idea.)

Artists based in the Republic of Ireland could be paid €325 (£283) [$384] a week by the Irish government as part of a scheme to support them in their work. 

The Basic Income for the Arts (BIA) project is believed to be the first permanent one of its kind in the world and Ireland's Culture Minister Patrick O'Donovan says it makes Ireland a "global leader in the area of artist support".

Some 2,000 eligible artists will be selected after applications open in May and will receive the weekly payment for three years. (Source: BBC)

The country ran a pilot scheme a few years ago and found that for every Euro they put into the pocket of an artist, a value of 1.39 Euros was generated "while allowing artists to devote more time to their work and improving their quality of life."

No one's going to get rich on the equivalent of $384 a week, but for artists living on the edge of precarity, it's a good foundation on which to build a life and devote more time to their work, unburdened by having to spend every other minue fretting about where their next meal was coming from. With the modest basic boost the Irish government's putting in their pocket, an artist could supplement their income with proceeds from their art and/or part time paid work.

I can't wait to see how many end up applying for those 2,000 grants. I'm guessing an order of magnitude beyond 2,000. Maybe more. 

Applicants must live in Ireland and have a "professional creative practice which is primarily based in Ireland." Beyond that, there's a pretty broad definition of the arts.

The Visual Arts includes not just all media, but curators and art writers. The Theatre grouping goes beyond actor and director to include theater techs, designers, puppeteers, and mimes. Now, I wouldn't be too crazy to see my tax money going to support mimes, but maybe that's just me. 

Architects are also on the list. 

All sorts of writers - fiction, non-ficiton, poets and beyond - are eligible. Singers, musicians, composers, conductors of all stripes. Dancers, choreographers, and dance tutors/coaches. (Learned a new word: repetiteur.) Opera everythings, including repetiteurs. 

Everything that you can think of that pertains to films, including voice over artists.

Circus artists are also wecome to apply. Clowns aren't specified, but I'm guessing they're included under "circus artists." (If it were me running the scheme, it would be NCNA - No Clowns Need Apply. But as with mimes, that's maybe just me.)

Overall, I think that scheme is a terrific idea. 

Tis yet another reason to love Ireland. Makes me look even more forward to my as-yet-in-the-scheming-stages next trip across the pond.

Happy St. Patrick's Day to all who celebrate!

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Image Source: ABC News