Birth of a theatre - part 2
"The National Lottery had been established earlier in 1987, and hopes were high that through a combination of this and other sources Letterkenny would receive the necessary funding. In the event, however, the allocation in November 1987 of £200,000 (approx €254,000) left the Council in somewhat of a quandary – enough to keep the project alive, but too little to begin work.
"Instead of celebration it was back to the drawing board. A number of options were considered, including building the complex in the designated area of the town, with a view to attracting a major developer, but nothing came of the idea. There the matter rested until May 1990, when the council decided to proceed with the plan in two phases. The first phase, would be the building of the Central Library and Arts Centre on the site of the former Literary Institute at Lower Main St, and the second would be the building of the theatre. The Central Library and Arts Centre duly went ahead, and is now in its fifth year of service. While there was some concern that putting the theatre on the back burner might mean that it would not be built for a long time, if ever, local support for the project never wavered, and amongst other initiatives, Letterkenny Chamber of Commerce became involved in trying to turn that support into practical results. Happily the picture was to improve radically, just a few years later.
"The decision by the newly formed government in 1993 to create the first ever cabinet post of Minister for Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht, was to radically change the arts landscape of the country. Soon after taking office Michael D. Higgins, TD, the first Minister to fill the post, announced the Cultural Development Incentive Scheme, offering up to 75% funding for theatres, arts centres and museums. The Council quickly decided to seek funding under the CDIS, and commissioned new plans for a theatre at the Rectory Field, which had been enlarged by the purchase of the site fronting the Port Road. The plans were submitted to the government in February 1995, and following revisions suggested by the Department, and a visit to Letterkenny by the Minister – no stranger to Donegal as a frequent speaker at the MaGill Summer School in Glenties – Minister Higgins announced the allocation of £1.5M (approx €1.9M) to the project in February 1996. (con't)
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