The Arts Council of Northern Ireland has, in fact, quietly recognised the region's special position for a long time, and has liaised with An Chomhairle Ealaion in a ground-breaking way: last year the Councils spent £2 million on joint projects. During the Consortium it was also announced that the EU has pledged funds to create Arts-Park, an Internet communications network for the arts sector on the island of Ireland.

There is, of course, much to be gained from its British links as well. ABSA, the Association For Business Sponsorship Of The Arts, whose general director, Colin Tweedy spoke at the conference, is a truly dynamic British body, and its Belfast branch seems to do great work: it is with ABSA's help that November will see such an astonishing event in Belfast as Merce Cunningham's Ocean, the dance show which Edinburgh considered too expensive for it. The rules governing the National Lottery in Britain have revolutionised the arts in the North, and the Arts Council has just succeeded in widening the Lottery's definition of "capital asset" to the creation of new works of art. Belfast really does have a lot to crow about this Autumn. Next week the first meeting of the International Association of Art Critics will happen in Belfast, the subject being art and conflict (information on Belfast---). The Quebecois Festival throughout the North will run for a week from September 28th, and while the Canadian Studies Conference at Queen's will study "Quebec and Northern Ireland: Culture, Community, Conflict", there will be arts events like a series of traditional music concerts, a visit by the pianist MarcAndre Hamelin to the Guildhall, Derry and the Waterfront Hall, performance artist Richard Martel's Ethnological Study at Catalyst Arts, performances by the dance group, Cas Public at the Waterfront Hall and the Ardhowen Theatre, Enniskillen, and a visit by the Montreal-based Theatre Sans Fil who will perform Tolkien's Lord Of The Rings at the Grand Opera House.

Both of these events will hopefully allow for the placing of the North's culture in its true context - one in which desperately important peace talks are (hopefully) proceeding, which explore (hopefully) the North's divided identity and ways of ensuring that it has a cultural future of any kind.