A PLANNED archive documenting the Irish in Birmingham at the city’s library is under threat due to council funding cuts.
After revealing plans to open the city’s first Irish archive at the Library of Birmingham to The Irish Post in December, project co-ordinator Jim Ranahan has since confirmed that its formal launch can no longer take place.
Due to be revealed during the city’s St Patrick’s celebrations in March, the Brendan Farrell Collection was the first instalment of the archive which would have been available for public perusal.
The much-anticipated collection includes 50 years of photography by former Irish Post photojournalist Brendan Farrell, who widely documented the Irish community in Birmingham and further afield over the decades.
But since the announcement of controversial cuts to libraries, parks and community celebrations across the city — as proposed in Birmingham City Council’s April 2015 budget — the future of the collection and the Irish archive more generally remains uncertain.
“In terms of the intended March 2015 launch, the unsettled budgetary and staffing situation regarding the Library of Birmingham means that the organisation no longer feels able to undertake a formal launch, as it is unclear what further support could be provided from April 1, 2015,” Mr Ranahan explained.
He added: “The Council is currently considering the results of a public consultation which closed on January 12. As presented in this consultation, the proposals will reduce our staffing budgets by more than 50 per cent and opening hours from 73 to 40. So as yet we don’t know exactly how that will impact on archive work specifically, or any individual project, but the effect would undoubtedly be substantial overall.”
The news is a double blow for Irish people in Birmingham, who recently learnt that the local authority would no longer fund the city’s annual St Patrick’s Parade and Festival, leaving organisers with a £20,000 hole in their annual funding pot.
“The impact of the council cuts have been very disappointing,” said Mr Farrell.
“First the St Patrick’s Festival and now this Irish archive, which is a vital addition to the Library of Birmingham.
“My collection was just a start for the rest of the archive and for it all to be potentially lost, having finally got around to archiving this material, would be awful.
“I am hopeful that it won’t be lost for good and that it will be preserved by the library in some way,” he added.
While the future of the archive and the Brendan Farrell Collection project currently hangs in the balance, all archive material currently held by the library will be preserved, Mr Ranahan confirmed.
“Circumstances have overtaken us all in the Library so rapidly that I cannot yet identify a clear way forward for the project,” he explained, “other than to confirm that all collections currently with us will continue to be stored in a safe and secure environment and will be made available to the public as resources permit.”
The Library of Birmingham cutbacks fall within a raft of controversial budget proposals made by the council, which include similarly devastating cuts to parks, community events and care services in the city, which are due to take effect in April 2015.
