The Arts Council has expressed its sadness at the death of John Coolahan .
Speaking today, Sheila Pratschke, Chair of the Arts Council said, " John Coolahan was always a friend of the arts and of the Arts Council. In 1978 he became a member of the working party that oversaw The Place of the Arts in Irish Education (the Benson report) which remains the foundation document for developments in this field. Throughout his distinguished career John was involved in setting the educational agenda in Ireland and for him the arts were always central to that agenda. “
“This was a matter of heartfelt commitment, of intellectual conviction, and of lived experience as teacher, advocate, board-member, historian, and delegate extraordinaire in so many meetings and conventions of strategic import.” she added.
She continued, “Successive Arts Councils benefited enormously from his wise counsel. Our sense of loss is tempered by the knowledge that his legacy is nothing less than the joy that future generations of young people in Ireland will derive from engagement in high-quality arts experiences. He will be greatly missed.”
←Return to the news