Cryptid
New Member
Government funding for sport has, in a lot of areas, provided access to sport & physical activity to people from disadvantaged areas. That's a good thing.
Yes, but could the money have been better spent by investing in a wider range of activity that includes music?
Go and look at the league tables for the North Dublin Schoolboys League or the Dublin District Schoolboys League (football), (look at the tables for any adult league either) and see if you can't spot the number of teams from disadvantaged areas. Or GAA. (Not the same for Rugby, obviously).
You'd have to look at the composition of those teams, but point taken. Although an area of over one million people having 100 or so football teams, each with 15 players, from disadvantaged areas doesn't indicate an unqualified success.
While people from lower socio-economic backgrounds are less likely to participate in sport regularly than people from higher socio-economic backgrounds generally, the disparity when it comes to arts attendance or active participation is much, much worse.
That's a self propagating argument. If the state turns it's back on something and encourages something else, how can you expect the first thing to prosper among the people who would benefit from it?
So, ideally, the solution would be to keep up funding for sport because it does work but also to provide a level of or structure for funding for the arts which promotes greater participation rather than simply exacerbates existing inequalities.
It shouldn't be an either/or situation and the ultimate goal of funding, which it is for sport, should be to increase participation.
Actually, the real problem is government funding for music education at primary and post-primary level.
I might have missed about three posts that said all this while I was typing it and I could probably keep typing for another hour but if you go to the Arts Council's website and the Irish Sports Council's website, you can compare and contrast the various statistics and research on participation.
MUSIC AND SPORT FOR EVERYONE!
I do agree with the last bit there. Ok, that was my last post on the topic. I've done f-all work this afternoon.