No that’s exactly the point.
They’d clearly got advice saying LWS attendance was not important enough to sack. So when Daddy figure Mark Cousins tells them to sort it - the in-experienced chairs then hand wring a bit.
Bull faced I’ll fix it Michele went off and back channeled to Outburst. Interestingly one of Outburst’s former directors Cain Smyth was supporting Michele and BFF in person today.
https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/NI603571/officers
Cain Smyth is the link between former friends - Michelle Devlin and Ruth McCarthy.
He joined the Outburst Board in 2011 and served alongside both Michelle for over a year, and clearly was a very close ally of Ruth McCarthy because he sat on the board for 9 years until 2020.
He is also named as a collaborator at Outburst at some
https://lgbtni.org/outburst-queer-arts-festival/#:~:text=Outburst%20is%20funded%20primarily%20by%20the%20Arts%20Council,Development%2C%20Age%20NI%20and%20the%20Public%20Health%20Agency.
FESTIVAL DIRECTOR: Ruth McCarthy
FILM PROGRAMME: Cian Smyth & Michele Devlin
Outburst is funded primarily by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland but is also sponsored by other key agencies such as Belfast City Council, the Department of Social Development, Age NI and the Public Health Agency. Together all these fantastic services have come together to allow us to bring you the best festival line up year on year.
He helpfully has a website - https://www.ciansmyth.co.uk/about
With Albert Maysles, he founded the Maysles Brothers Documentary Competition at the Belfast Film Festival in 2005 and was a co-founder (2007) and Chair (2013 -2020) of Outburst Queer Arts Festival.
He is formerly a board member of the Arts Council of Northern Ireland (2015- 2020)
So while he is Chair of the Outburst Queer Arts Festival he is also on the board of the Arts Council which provides the bulk of the funding for Outburst. The absolute grift of it all.
Circle jerk continues.
Other observers commented he was taking photos of Sara and her supporters in the room. I didn’t see it myself.