Clayton Love says that as one of the original supporters of Cork's application for the designation as European Capital of Culture, his company, the Shipton Group, recognised that in a year-long event it would be best to come in with cash halfway through.

Love was handing over a €150,000 cheque to city manager Joe Gavin and although all the Cork 2005 personnel present seemed to be absolutely delighted with life, there was undoubtedly a communal sigh of relief. This is the money to secure the remaining sessions of the immensely successful Music Migrations series and to plug another few gaps as well, including setting up an information desk on Cork 2005 events at the Shipton Group's Blackpool Shopping Centre. A further 50,000 has been marked for the company's involvement in an archival and research project, Fadó Fadó, based on local reminiscences and information on the city archive centre's relocation to Blackpool.

Listening to Gavin yet again express his confidence that other "major players in the city" would provide further support for Cork 2005, Music Migrations programme curator Philip King admitted that the amount of money available for the year didn't seem to be sufficient to allow the event to hold its head up.

Thanks to this sponsorship,though, the next strand in his project is going ahead, with Soul of the Mountains celebrating American country music in July.