The first all-Ireland international arts information publication will be launched by Minister de Valera on Friday. Via, funded by An Chomhairle Ealaion, the Arts Council of Northern Ireland and the British Council is aimed at providing information on opportunities abroad for Irish artists and arts groups. The first edition runs to 76 pages. What would be wonderful would be a companion magazine selling Irish artists and their work abroad, the likes of which land on this desk from all sort of far-flung locations.

However, perhaps this could not be co-ordinated unless a touring agency for Irish art had already been established, and it doesn't look like that move is imminent. The Director of the Arts Council, Patricia Quinn, intimated at the recent Theatre Shop, however, that the Arts Council is attempting to give greater support to groups trying to move into the international arena. As the Arts Council's Mary Hyland puts it, "There has been a false demarcation line between work produced at home and international touring and that demarcation line will cease to exist."