Rubberbandits respond to Limerick City of Culture rap controversy

She felt that the “City’s looking rough when you’re walking on the bridge" part of Nathan Keane and Calvin McNamara's composition jarred with the image of Limerick they're trying to push. In the end, no alterations were made.
"It's disappointing to see that the lyrics that the two boys had written were asked to be changed," says Blindboy of the duo who've been criticised for portraying Limerick negatively themselves – charges they well and truly kicked into a touch a few years ago on the Joe Duffy show. "The request shows a lack of empathy for art. The main lines of concern in the rap are: 'The city's looking rough when you're walking by the bridge, it's the city where we're tough, there's no place you'd rather live'. If those lines are the honest artistic expression of how the two lads experience Limerick themselves, then they have a 100 percent right, even a responsibility as artists to communicate that. If they didn't communicate their honest experience in their art, then they'd be making bad art. They aren't; the rap is on the ball and says a lot about their personal experience of Limerick in a few words.
"The artist himself is the sole expert on his own art. Others are entitled to have an opinion about a piece of art, but as soon as another person or body censors the content, integrity is lost. Art is measured by its integrity. James Joyce and Samuel Beckett are two Irish artists who legged it to France so that they could write outside of the Irish climate of censorship at the time. Ulysses is heralded as the greatest example of modernist literature, and it came from the filthy uncensored honesty of an Irish man who knew exactly what he wanted to communicate and how."
Meanwhile, Limerick City of Culture Board Chairman Pat Cox claims that the event is still "very much on track" despite the New Year's Day resignations of artistic director Karl Wallace and two of the contract workers assisting him, Jo Mangan and Maeve McGrath.
In a statement, Wallace, a former director of Limerick's Belltable Arts Centre, said: “We grew to realise that the roles of artistic director and those of the programming team would no longer be central to the City of Culture year, as the event progressed under new management. While I regret making an early departure I can no longer stand over a project that I have concerns about, concerns that have been repeatedly aired but not addressed."
Despite widespread outcry from the local artistic community, Cox, a former TD, MEP and President of the European Parliament, insists that the year-long celebration is not in crisis.
“We have just enjoyed a hugely successful New Year’s Eve launch and are immediately looking forward to our January flagship event, the six Riverdance shows at the UL Sports Arena, which have exceeded all expectations in terms of ticket sales at this stage," he says in a statement. “With over 100 events set to take place in the first quarter of the year alone, including also the stunning Fuerza Bruta in March, we have an edgy and modern programme already in place, and more to announce.
“We will be taking stock of resourcing requirements in light of these decisions and will strengthen our team accordingly."
Talking subsequently on Limerick's Live 95, Cox claims Wallace's resignation followed a "performance review" of his work to date.
Local Labour councillor Tom Shortt has suggested that the City of Culture PR people are trying to promote "a Disneyland-style version of Limerick, instead of a robust warts and all version."
A public meeting to discuss the City of Culture controversy is taking place at 6.30pm tonight in the Clarion Hotel.
Expect this one to run and run...