Brian is front page news in The New York Times
WHILE no stranger to the pages of The Wexford People, organising several festivals and events across the county each year, promoter Brian Byrne of Lantern Presents made it to the front page of The New York Times last week as he provided some insight into economic measures that the Irish government is putting in place to weather the storm of Covid-19.
London based global economic correspondent with the infamous US publication Peter Goodman was tasked with looking at the measures being put in place outside of the US and also spoke people working in the hospitality sector in Spain and Brian explained how things worked for him and his staff in these unprecedented times. Photographer Paolo Nunes arrived in Wexford and snapped some ambient shots of Brian, one of which saw him tinkling the ivories in well-loved Wexford watering hole Mackens.
‘A friend of mine is actually a neighbour of Paolo’s,’ Brian explained. ‘He travels all over the world with the New York Times to war-zones and all sorts, but he’s actually married to an Irish woman. I guess we were on a list of businesses for Peter Goodman to talk to and, I suppose with it being an interesting industry, he gave me a call.’
‘The jist of the article was looking at how things are being done in European countries,’ he continued. ‘In the US, they don’t have that same sort of safety net that we have. They can get unemployment benefit for a bit longer, but it can take a long time for them to get. Over here, the company continues to pay employee’s wages and the revenue gives back up to 85%, which I think is much fairer.’ There was an extra buzz for Brian as his image made it onto the front page of The New York Times, although he doubts it has anything to do with him being photogenic!
‘It’s the first time anyone has accused me of being photogenic,’ he laughed. ‘It was great to see myself on the front page though, and on the 4th of July edition as well. I have a sister in law out in America and she’s bought a couple of copies to post over to us. It’s nice to get a little boost with something positive when things are so difficult for the industry.’