The Ulster Orchestra is under threat while “money will continue to flow unabated for Republican festivals and loyalist bands”, according to Conservative spokesman, Mark Brotherston.
“The orchestra is perhaps Northern Ireland’s most significant cultural institution and it could go to the wall in about a month”, Mark explained. “Yet the ‘carve up’ of DCAL spending for loyalists and republicans rolls on. Funding for sectarian concerts at Ardoyne, funding for 11th night bonfires, funding for flute bands, but we’re struggling to sustain the only professional, full-time orchestra in Northern Ireland.”
“This is the practical outcome of government by the DUP and Sinn Féin. We have a culture minister who, by her own admission, didn’t attend a single play in the first three years of her tenure. Before that, Nelson McCausland spent his time writing letters to the Belfast festival at Queen’s, attempting to get more Ulster Scots into the programme.“
“They have no idea of the value of arts to society or indeed to the economy. It proves the Executive’s warped sense of priorities that an institution like the Ulster Orchestra, which has been in existence for almost 50 years, is on the verge of collapse. And it proves that ministers are letting down the less vocal members of our community, who do not count themselves as either loyalist or republican.”