04/06/2026
To every artist who applied.
Who most likely won’t get it.
Who filled out the form anyway.
Who kept working through the pilot, through the uncertainty, through the underfunding.
Thank you.
Not the Minister. Not the department.
YOU.
You are the ones running sessions in community centres on a Tuesday morning. Sitting with people who are lonely. Making teenagers feel seen for the first time. Bringing music into places that have been silent too long. Creating the culture that makes Ireland worth living in and worth visiting.
You did that on crumbs.
And you still showed up.
The BIA is a start. But 10,000 applications tells us one thing clearly the gap between what artists need and what the state provides is enormous. And we will not close that gap with press releases and photo ops.
We close it with infrastructure. Real, sustained investment in the systems that let creative people build careers not just survive a three-year lottery window.
We close it by telling the truth about what artists actually contribute economically, socially, emotionally to every community in this country.
And we close it by refusing to let the public conversation stay at the level of “isn’t it great we’re doing something” when the evidence says we need to do five times more.
The creative sector doesn’t need a spotlight on the government.
It needs one on the benefits of the work.
Share this if you know an artist who deserves to be seen today.
And from me to you - I will not rest until this changes.
Always in your corner
Tara x
