Fintan Warfield (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I pay tribute to Cian O’Brien, who steps down as artistic director of the Project Arts Centre. I have always loved the fact he began his time at the Project working behind the bar in 2005. A year later, he produced his first show, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, before scaling the heights of artistic direction at one of Ireland’s most important cultural centres. His rapid, vertical progression in the job is proof good ideas, a wild imagination, collaborative spirit and dedicated focus will always be rewarded. In his 13 years at the Project, Cian has overseen some extraordinary successes, among them Emmet Kirwan's Dublin Oldschool. Its sold-out run would lead to a national tour and further runs in Canada and Britain. The Project’s international outreach was on view again during Ireland’s centenary commemoration of 1916. I am thinking here of The Casement Project in London. Not once but twice, the Project Arts Centre represented Ireland at the Venice Biennale with the works of Jesse Jones and Eimear Walshe.

Three years before the pandemic, Cian helmed Project 50, a series of events marking the Project’s half-century as a significant arts and cultural space. As Cian remarked at the time, "Project is a vital part of the cultural landscape in Ireland. It is the engine room of contemporary art, of new ideas and forms". It is good to recall the original remit and overarching ambition that has propelled Project forward all these years. It was established as an artists’ collective and it has always been about creating the necessary space for arts and craft practitioners to advance essential conversations around cultural identity and society. The Project has managed this with a great collaborative spirit and a bang of rebellion too, whether by championing The Gay Sweatshop back in the 1970s or, 48 years later, unveiling Maser’s iconic repeal mural on the Essex Street facade of the building.

Nothing illustrated Cian O’Brien’s capacity, and that of the Project, for political posturing and rebelliousness than the manner in which he responded to the official censorship of the repeal mural. As Cian himself would say, "... Project Arts Centre has always been home to the new and the next". It is impossible to imagine the new and the next if one is not open and approachable, if one cannot see the value of collaboration. It is that very capacity for collaboration that may well be Cian’s hallmark. Cian’s tenure at the Project has been marked by being open and approachable and investing in those essential conversations around cultural identity. I thank him for leaving the Project in such good hands and wish him well in any future endeavours.