(In response to this post in The Stage magazine, I'm raising my head above the parapet, and speaking up for the practitioners who have been struggling on without any funding in Northern Ireland, which invariably, includes myself).
š¯•´t isn't breaking any secret code pointing out that the arts in general in Northern Ireland have been totally decimated by cuts in recent years. The post-conflict economy was buttressed by very generous loans and grants to NI (most of which was squandered, or stolen, but that's a different website), and the arts began to thrive.