Marsden is not one of those places whose name resonates in the annals of the arts world. Indeed, for many people travelling by train from Leeds to Manchester, it’s no more than the briefly witnessed name of a station as your carriage whizzes past (though perhaps ‘whiz’ is the wrong verb in the context of a journey that takes the best part of two hours to traverse a distance of just over 43 miles).

Boundaries in Spain were made to be broken -witness architects creating breathtakingly beautiful furniture, interiors specialists designing stunning clothes and illustrators involved in imaginative refurbishments of buildings..

Part of the problem in advancing the cause of culture in government and other circles is the argument, sometimes unspoken sometimes said out loud, that the arts “business” is somehow not “real”.

The idea that, compared to catching fish or making cars, cultural activity is somehow not “work” is one which is still rampant in all too many parts of our political structures.

We have heard a lot about culture wars in the UK lately, but the truth is that the “rows” over everything from the displaying of union flags to the dumping of statues is an essentially English argument.

Everyone knows by now the important role that local government plays in the cultural ecology of the country. Attention is often focused on the UK government, or more precisely the UK government in its function as funder of the arts in England. There’s lots of debate about Arts Council England, too, and the part it plays in supporting cultural activity. But local government as a whole gets less airtime. Partly this is a result of the hugely centralised media we have. If it hasn’t happened in London, it’s probably not that important.

An ambitious project to digitise Ireland’s lost public records will aid the study of the nation’s history, says Patrick Kelly