Fergus Linehan
For some people, the clearest view of one’s hometown comes only when you move away from it - in Fergus Linehan’s case, by leaving Dublin for the theatre scenes of Sydney, London and Edinburgh.
The festival director and arts administrator began his career at the theatre company now known as Fishamble before moving on to direct the Dublin Theatre Festival from 2000 to 2004.
Arts events with international appeal
He has spent much of the last 20 years running arts events with international appeal, including both the Sydney Festival and Edinburgh International Festival. In 2023 he returned to Sydney to take up the post of CEO at Carriageworks, a leading Australian arts organisation and cultural precinct.
“Sydney is quite unconcerned with its past,” he says. “It’s growing at such a pace, with people coming from all over the world. It's a city that is still building, constructing its entire cultural geography as opposed to places where you're often dealing with a process of making iterative changes to established things.”
Championing Irish artists internationally
During his uniquely international career in the arts, Linehan has been able to commission and champion Irish artists and musicians.
“I mean, you couldn’t not,” he says. “It’s an enormous advantage to have connections and contacts with so many artists of such a high standard.”
An early collaboration with the playwright Enda Walsh has led to the pair “sort of following each other around”, working together in different forms and different cities, while Linehan has also brought the musician Martin Hayes to Sydney twice, including to the Sydney Opera House.
In his final year in Edinburgh, Linehan commissioned The Ballad of a Great Disordered Heart, a film exploring the city’s Old Town and its Irish diaspora, featuring live performances from Irish musicians including Cormac Begley, Liam Ó Maonlaí and Róisín Chambers.
Presidential Distinguished Service Award
It’s for this impressive track record that Linehan was awarded a Presidential Distinguished Service Award in 2022, in the category of Arts, Culture and Sport.
“It was really moving,” he says of the occasion. “Because I suppose you’re always thinking of Ireland, subconsciously. Then when you look back at your work, you think, Well, I wasn’t even conscious that I was doing so much Irish work. But it was always there.”
There’s a power, he says, in the role that culture has to play for Ireland around the world. “Whatever soft power or cultural diplomacy are is a whole conversation, but I’m a huge advocate for culture as a kind of calling card for a country like Ireland,” he explains.
“For years, there was a sense of the arts in Ireland as the gnarly, intense old men, the ‘tortured Irish artist’ figure. But now it feels young and exciting. And whatever power it has, it feels very tangible.”