Our Guggenheim

I was putting this line in a letter to a senior politician seeking help for our public artwork project in West Belfast but was told it was OTT.

So it was dropped from the letter, but I can still hoist it onto the Balcony:

In my view, the Irish language, at the core of the Gaeltacht Quarter, is the Guggenheim of Belfast. It has the power to transform and reconfigure an area previously associated with conflict and disadvantage. The Lúbrán is the first major building block in that development. In urging you to provide additional support for this project, I am reminded of the words of Xabier Arzalluz, of the Basque Nationalist Party, who pioneered the £75m Guggenheim museum in Bilbao: "It was expensive but it was cheap for what we got. When we decided to do it, everyone was against it. But then, it was argued that the centre of Bilbao would be a centre of modern art for Europe. Then we saw the light. It is a great thing for the future."

And 28 years today from the death of Bobby Sands, I'm reminded of the fact that we still haven't managed to turn the prison hospital where he died – and one of the most powerful places I have ever visited — into a centre for the promotion of peace and the resolution of conflict. Though I've no doubt that will come to pass.