€5m funding announced for twelve joint Ireland-UK cultural projects

Taoiseach Micheál Martin and Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, alongside Minister for Culture, Communications and Sport Patrick O'Donovan and Minister for Creative Industries, Media and Arts Ian Murray, have announced funding of €5m for twelve projects under the UK-Ireland Cultural Co-Operation Programme, fulfilling a commitment made at their 2025 UK-Ireland Summit to establish a strategic partnership to deepen and amplify co-operation between the leading cultural institutions in both countries.

The projects approved for funding will take place during the period from 2026 to 2030. They include:

• A co-production between Ireland's Abbey Theatre and the National Theatre in London, which will star award-winning actor Paul Mescal in a co-production of the play "A Whistle in the Dark" by the late Tom Murphy. The play centres around a family of Irish immigrants in 1960's Coventry and explores how the Carney brothers' innate destructive masculinity is ignited by exclusion, hostility and poverty.
• The development of 'All-In', an Irish and UK access scheme for creativity and culture, launching in 2026, managed by the Arts Councils in Ireland and the UK. Its purpose is to make theatres, museums, galleries, festivals and other cultural spaces more accessible for deaf people, people with disabilities and neurodivergent people through a bespoke digital membership system.
• The National Archives of Ireland and the National Archives in the UK will co-operate on a programme of research, education and interpretation of the shared aspects of the history of both nations, weaving together the archival collections of the two countries. This project will enable education and wider public engagement with the shared, individual, governmental and societal histories of both countries.
• The National Museum of Ireland, with the National Museum of Scotland and National Museums Liverpool, will carry out a project to research and catalogue collections in Ireland and the UK in co-operation with international communities by documenting the provenance of selected collections from around the world gathered in London by the Department of Science and Art in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, which were distributed across a network of museums, including what is now the National Museum of Ireland, National Museums of Scotland and National Museums Liverpool.
• The National Concert Hall will work with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic on youth choral exchange concerts, orchestra exchanges enabling large-scale performances in both Dublin and Liverpool, and an orchestral commission exploring Ireland-Liverpool connections. In a separate project the National Concert Hall will partner with the Barbican and with Moving On Music Belfast to create a flagship initiative for folk music, presenting a major piece of work through concerts in London, Dublin and Belfast, exploring the "new" in folk music across the islands.

All of these projects reflect the desire of both Governments to forge a new path of co-operation, as set out in the UK-Ireland 2030 programme announced at the first UK-Ireland Summit in Liverpool last year.

Taoiseach Micheál Martin said:

"I am very pleased to announce this funding to 12 projects that will deliver our commitment to a strategic partnership between cultural institutions. The projects enable our leading cultural institutions and organisations to share their creativity and skills to tell the stories of Ireland and the UK, through artistic expression and archival research. I welcome also that there will be a focus on the sharing of expertise presenting opportunities for professional development by practitioners in both countries.

"I wish every funded project success and look forward to seeing the fruits of this co-operation over the coming years."

Prime Minister Keir Starmer said:

"The UK and Ireland are close friends and neighbours with a rich cultural history, and the first UK-Ireland Summit last year set us on the path to deepen those ties further.

"I am pleased to see that reflected in these exciting projects which celebrate the best of our musical, theatrical and historical assets, providing opportunity and cultural experiences to communities on both sides of the Irish sea."

Minister O'Donovan said:

"I warmly welcome this strengthening of co-operation between cultural institutions and organisations in Ireland and the UK, and I am pleased to approve the funding allocations from my Department's budget to support these projects. This is an opportunity for shared learning and understanding through cultural projects that will benefit both of our countries. I'm particularly pleased to see the additional emphasis across many of the projects towards inclusion, and the opportunities for both past generations and current communities to have their voices heard through this work."

Minister for Creative Industries, Media and Arts Ian Murray MP said:

"Arts and culture is all about collaboration. These incredible projects involve some of the best and brightest stars and organisations from all across these islands. They will be an absolute treat for audiences.

"This new set of partnerships between our world-leading institutions will reach thousands of people across the UK and Ireland, spanning the worlds of theatre, arts, music, museums and more. It's the perfect reminder that the Irish Sea has always been a bridge and not a barrier to shared culture and heritage."

At the 2025 UK-Ireland Summit, a strategic partnership between the National Cultural Institutions (NCIs) of Ireland and equivalent 'leading cultural institutions' of the UK was agreed by the Taoiseach and Prime Minister. Paragraph 31 of their Joint Statement of 6 March 2025 reads:

We value the extraordinary influence and contribution of British and Irish cultures and heritages to the artistic and cultural wealth of the public realm and creative industries and institutions in both our countries. In recognition of this, today, we agree to establish a strategic partnership to deepen and amplify co-operation between our leading cultural institutions and to support wider public engagement with the contemporary culture and heritage of both our countries. Over the coming five years, this will comprise a range of measures to support collaborations in programming, professional exchange, research and policy, and an annual joint meeting of our leading cultural institutions each autumn.

The initiative is to comprise a five-year work programme to 2030, with three thematic strands and dedicated funding, to cover:

A. Joint Programming & Curatorial Collaborations (in Ireland and the UK, and jointly in other territories)

B. Professional Exchange & Development (for staff at all stages of their careers, and across a range of functions)

C. Joint Research & Policy Initiatives (across a range of areas of specific research and policy, and common themes such as digitisation, ethics, restitution, climate transition and sustainability, access and diversity, disinformation, cyber security etc)

The Department of Culture, Communications and Sport (DCCS) and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) led on the proposal, in consultation with the Department of the Taoiseach, and in co-operation with the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) on the UK side.

A financial commitment of €6m has been made towards the Programme by the Government of Ireland over the period 2026-2030. The total allocation for the projects announced here is €4.975m.

The full list of supported projects, and their respective allocations are shown in the table below.