Oisín Ó Ceallaigh explains the Pálás Cinema Galway closure and argues that such a cultural institution should not be abandoned to the ravages of the market.
The recent announcement by Pálás Cinema Galway to close its doors after only 7 years of trading has come as a shock to many casual cinemagoers and an inevitable sorrow for those who have followed the development of the cinema since as far back as 2004. For most enjoyers of independent Irish and international cinema, the cinema is a hub for creative filmmaking and a space to highlight smaller voices in film, at home and abroad. The closing of its doors is being mourned by thousands in Galway who go to there to immerse themselves in film.
The building was originally designed as an arthouse cinema, with upside-down staircases evocative of MC Escher’s painting Relativity, and a contemporary concrete design unlike anything else in the city. It was opened in 2018, 4 years after UNESCO designated Galway as an ‘International City of Film’. If Pálás goes, it will be another ruin created by the neoliberal market that is pushing the arts out of the city.
The notion that a building like this, built with €8.4 million of public money, should then be left to fend for itself in an oversaturated market is a joke. It was public money that funded the building and it is Galway locals and students who enjoy its facilities.
Social Institution
In all respects, Pálás is a civic building. It is a building by the people of Galway, for the people of Galway, and it should not be treated as a private business to be chewed up by the free market and the systemic industry-wide decline of cinema, which Pálás suffers even more from by showing smaller budget and lesser marketed films.
The economic reality is that big chains like Omniplex and IMC already struggle due to the general decline in numbers of people going out to the cinema – the result of the domination of online streaming services. Pálás incurs larger losses because it is purpose built for a smaller audience, and its emphasis on promoting smaller budget, independent films. This clearly comes at a price, but it is also something that thousands of people in Galway find precious. Being able to congregate and discuss films in a setting like Pálás is a rare thing that many people find great value in. It is also the main contributor in showcasing films relevant to political and social issues. For example, the Law Society at University of Galway showed the 1993 classic In the Name of the Father, a challenging film about the anti-Irish racism and sectarianism rooted in the British Judicial System, based on the real-life story of Gerry Conlon and the Guildford Four. Another notable example this year was the premiere of Kneecap, possibly the busiest I have ever seen the Pálás cinema, with a line out the door, buzzing to see a fresh, radical take on politics in the North through the medium of the Irish language. Event cinema has a place in Galway, and losing Pálás is a major defeat for the arts community in the city.
The fact is that Pálás is not a competitor with IMC and Omniplex. Anyone believing that has a fundamental misunderstanding of the purpose it serves Galway. It has 3 screens, an upstairs bar and a café for lounging. It is, by design, a social institution, for discussion and entertainment. Element Pictures own Pálás in Galway and the Lighthouse Cinema in Smithfield, Dublin. Compare this to the 250 cinemas belonging to IMC and Omniplex in Ireland and Britain. Pálás exists as an alternative to mainstream cinema and provides a community for small and important films to be shown.
City Council Can Act
If Pálás goes, it is hard to say if there would be any reason, other than the tourism appeal of the Spanish Arch and the City Museum, that the dock area around Spanish Arch will see much activity. Pálás will now revert back to City Council ownership. Allowing it to become mired in Council indecision over what should be done with it will inevitably see it fall into vacancy and disrepair. We must keep the pressure on the Council to see that that does not happen.
Confronting the desperate situation that artists and workers across Ireland face requires bold steps in taking on the reclamation of vacant properties all over Ireland. The aim for a city council, especially one so reliant on the cultural and artistic scene like Galway, should be to create more spaces for creative expression. Allowing Pálás to become just another empty building would create another symbol of this state’s disregard for the needs and wants of the people. The city council promised for an additional €39 million towards the arts over the next 5 years in its October proposal. If it is serious about supporting the arts, it will absorb Pálás into its arts budget and give it the marketing push it desperately needs as Galway’s cinema.
Culture, Not Vultures
The council must also look at the vacant houses attached to Pálás on Lower Merchants Road, which have sat derelict for years, with multiple action plans being put forward by the Council since 2019, which have resulted in nil. If there is any wonder why people view Pálás as being out of the way, they only need look at the state of Spanish Parade and Lower Merchants Road. Other than Pálás and the City Museum, there has been longstanding neglect of housing in the area, with most land given up to commercial properties, office buildings and private flats. If Galway City Council wants to cripple that side of the city almost entirely, it will let Pálás go. If it wants to take steps to improve social life and help with the desperate housing situation in the city, it will bolster Pálás and reclaim the vacant townhouses on Lower Merchants Road to be allocated as social housing. There are over 6,000 vacant dwellings in Galway City and county, 40% higher than the state average. On top of this, there are also 1,946 derelict dwellings. Allowing more and more important buildings and central homes to slip into dereliction only serve the investment funds who sit on these properties and use them to create artificial scarcity which drives up rents even higher. It is our responsibility to fight back against vulture landlordism which not only comes for our houses, but also for our artistic and cultural centres.
Enabling filmmakers to film and enabling artists to make art means firstly, providing homes free from vulture landlords, and secondly, affording them the infrastructure to express and create. The laissez-faire approach to Galway’s cinema must be attacked from all sides. Do not let them take away the reasons people love this city, do not let them dissolve our cultural identity for the highest bidder. The key to Pálás’ future is in mounting pressure on the Council not to let it fall into vacancy. Galway must have an independent cinema if the UNESCO title means anything. Whether Element Pictures retains the cinema, the council steps in and takes it under its own name, or it is sold to another screen company, the integrity of independent cinema in Galway has to be preserved, and it is up to the arts community to make sure that happens.
