THE Irish are invading Edinburgh’s fringe festival, and the cultural bravehearts of Scotland are decidedly unhappy. Armed with government grants of more than €320,000, 14 Irish theatre shows will travel to the festival next week, much to the envy of locals.

Culture Ireland, a new agency set up to promote Irish arts internationally, has spent more than 10% of its annual budget helping the theatre companies to perform in Scotland. Among them will be Rough Magic’s production of Improbable Frequency, which received €110,000 to travel to Edinburgh and Poland.

The Scottish media is already complaining that its local talent can’t match up. The “raft of impressive” productions from Ireland should have been complemented by “a much bigger number of plays from Scotland, except that isn’t the case”, The Scotsman grumbled last week. “When the reviews come out and the awards roll in, it’s not hard to imagine Ireland coming out better than the home team.”

The Scottish Arts Council has blamed the lack of a suitable venue for the shortage of home-grown theatre. “We are under-represented,” the council said. “There is somewhat of an envious eye being cast on the good fortune of Irish theatre companies, but we don’t begrudge them coming here.”

Ten Irish productions have been funded by the government, which is also staging receptions in Edinburgh next week so that Irish producers and directors can network with their international counterparts.

“Culture Ireland recognises that Edinburgh is one of the most important events on the international artistic calendar for Irish theatre and dance companies,” a spokesman said. “Our cultural presence this year will be broad and will include productions that have already attracted national acclaim.”

Among those travelling are CoisCeim, which is staging Knots, a dance piece inspired by R D Laing, a Scottish psychiatrist. Barabbas is putting on Hairdresser in the House, in which an audience member gets a haircut, while Performance Corporation’s production of Dr Ledbetter’s Experiment involves a journey into the University of Edinburgh’s medical faculty.

Another Irish production, although not government funded, is Allegiance — Winston Churchill and Michael Collins, a play by Mary Kenny about an evening the British and Irish leaders spent together in 1921. Mel Smith, who stars as the prime minister, says he has threatened to smoke on stage, in defiance of a Scottish ban.

Tom Swift of the Performance Corporation, said that without Culture Ireland’s grant of €50,000, the Kildare-based theatre group would not have been able to perform at the festival.

“It’s a fantastic shop window for Irish theatre groups to show international programmers what they can do,” Swift said. “This creates jobs as well; we have to employ up to 20 people including actors.”

Loughlin Deegan, producer with Rough Magic, said Culture Ireland had already made a significant contribution to theatre. The Department of Foreign Affairs’ cultural committee, which it replaced, had offered “passive support” to artists, he felt, compared with Culture Ireland’s strategic approach.

“There is a sense that it has a purpose beyond the investments that are made,” Deegan said. “For Edinburgh, they are helping to produce an Irish brochure about the work and inviting people to come to see it. They will also host an event where we can meet people. So all the dots have been joined up.

“We have envied other countries for a long time . . . who have been active about promoting their culture. There were plenty of role models for them to look at and now the Irish arts community gives a resounding welcome to Culture Ireland. It does seem like the road is rising up to meet us.”

A spokeswoman for the fringe calculated there were at least eight extra Irish shows this year, and gave some of the credit to Visit Scotland’s advertising campaigns encouraging Irish people to attend.

Up to 40 Irish performers will be there, including comedians, dancers and bands. Among the comedians will be Dara O’Briain, Deirdre O’Kane and Ed Byrne. Bell X1, an indie rock group, is among the Irish musical performers.

Ironically some Irish festival organisers are being criticised for allowing their events to become too internationalised with not enough local performers. A rival arts festival was organised in Galway this year for this reason.

Irish theatre is enjoying something of a purple patch, having recently received 11 Tony nominations and with Fiach MacConghail proving to be a vibrant artistic director of the Abbey.

“Irish performers are getting more aggressive in the way they are aspiring to go abroad,” said an arts department official. “Scotland is the obvious place to go. If you make it in Edinburgh you have arrived.”

In Scotland, meanwhile, the demand is already starting for a home-grown version of Culture Ireland. “What Scotland lacks is a one-stop shop, such as Culture Ireland, which could provide funds and organisational back-up to tour abroad,” said The Scotsman last week, advising locals to “learn from the pluck of the Irish”.

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