The body set up to implement Galway’s winning 2020 European City of Culture bid, and its legacy, was unsuccessfully invited to attend Galway City Council three times last year, to explain its recent activities.
Galway Culture Company (GCC ) has again been invited to attend a special public meeting next month, to be held in City Hall immediately before the February full meeting of Galway City Council. The meeting will discuss the aftermath, impact and legacy of the city’s stint as the continent’s cultural hub during a year of extreme weather, global pandemic and subsequent controversy regarding arts funding.
In correspondence seen by the Advertiser, after each time it was invited last year, an unsigned letter from Galway Culture Company, addressed to City Hall, set out its reasons for declining.
Over 10 plenary meetings of Galway City Council in 2025, a number of councillors demanded Galway Culture Company attend City Hall to explain how it has disposed of a €1 million grant awarded by the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, fully drawn down in July, 2024, to fund legacy projects after the 2020 celebrations.
Although severely impacted by bad weather and the Covid19 outbreak, an initial €14 million was spent on the European bid, which resulted in Galway jointly winning the competition alongside Rijeka, in Croatia. Around 1,200 events employing 894 artists and cultural workers were held in Galway during 2020, despite the pandemic.
A government report issued in June last year, six months after Galway City Council first invited GCC to present its activities to councillors, shows the legacy €1 million was spent on place-based cultural programming (€537,000 ), cultural and creative sector supports (€271,000 ), and facilitating international and European relationships (€192,000 ).
Firstly invited in January last year, in February, an anonymous correspondent in Galway Culture Company wrote back to City Hall saying the organisation would be “pleased to engage with Galway City Council at a date to be agreed jointly” once it had published three key documents in March. These were GCC’s 2024 accounts, an external evaluation of GCC’s “programme”, and a “programme overview as prepared by Galway Culture Company”.
The GCC letter writer also requested that councillors provide them with written questions before any possible meeting. It was attached to an email from Marilyn Gaughan-Reddan, a programme manager for the European City of Culture, who was chief executive of the Galway Culture Company from September 2022, to July last year, according to her LinkedIn profile.
In October last year, Galway City Council’s high-level Corporate Policy Group wrote to the GCC to follow-up on the outstanding, 10-month-old invitation to attend a plenary meeting of all 18 city councillors. In an emailed response, the GCC said the correspondence would be noted at the company’s next board meeting, but gave no further commitments.
Finally, in December, the Galway Culture Company responded anonymously to a third invitation, stating it had successfully delivered the European City of Culture (EcoC ) legacy, that it was completing its own reviews, closing down its activities, and would be happy to meet, although did not specify when. “We are also very happy to respond to any individual questions or queries at any time and indeed happy to meet with any individual [council] members at any time and be supportive in any way,” the unsigned correspondence states.
Councillors Peter Keane (FF ) and Donal Lyons (Ind ) have publicly commented on GCC not presenting its activities to the full city council. Speaking to the Advertiser, Councillor Alan Cheevers (FF ), who has persistently raised questions about Galway 2020 over the last two councils, says he wants Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, Patrick O’Donovan, to initiate a full forensic audit of the accounts of the Galway Culture Company.
“Nobody signs these letters from Galway Culture Company, so who is making decisions? It is not acceptable to keep kicking our demands to speak to them down the road. There is a lot of tax payers’ money at play here for Galway, and we must have full transparency,” said Cheevers.
“It is wholly unacceptable that, after a year of repeated requests, the company has not appeared before the council to account for its expenditure. Given the continued lack of engagement and transparency, I believe the Minister must now intervene to ensure full accountability through a comprehensive forensic audit,” he added.
The Galway Culture Company’s most recent, 2024 accounts set out that it has one employee. It spent €21,000 on wages, and €35,000 on consultancy fees.
As of December 2024, it had 10 directors, chaired by former Galway city manager Brendan McGrath. At least two have stood down since. It received €765,000 in income, and spent €761,000 on “charitable activities,” with assets including cash and monies owed standing at €509,000.
Public Relations and branding cost €53,000, while €2,600 was spent on “hotels, travelling & entertainment etc” amongst €133,000 of company support costs.
With a registered address on Bowling Green in the city centre, the registered charity has not yet published its 2025 accounts.
