Re CCEs 'not for profit' status:
While having a sort-out of old magazines and books I came across an article in Phoenix Magazine, Dec 6th 2002, by 'Goldhawk' under the general heading of 'Pillars of Society' which deals with, among other things, CCEs financial status. This is an extract:
"Patricia Quinn et al viewed this a way for CCE to get on the arts funding gravy train to complement its income from the, which is supposed to be ring-fenced for promoting the Irish language.
This year CCE got €500,000 from this source (Department of Gaeltacht) and, indeed, Ó Murchú has proved very effective at tapping the public purse and is a consistent recipient of Cultural Relations Committee funding for US events. Also, Brú Ború in Cashel -one of a number of Comhaltas centres around the country - managed to land no less than €1.5 million from Bord Fáilte to build an underground theatre. There was a further €650,000 from the Department of Arts last year for this project which was officially opened by Síle Dev........
Comhaltas regularly claims to have 400 branches even if some of these are very small indeed. Nevertheless, the organisation is a very successful one and although the accounts are not published, Goldhawk can reveal that there were accumulated profits of €1.5 million at the end of last year. "Wages, pension, travel and subsistence" amounted to €550,000 (including a top-up sum for pensions). The biggest single element here would be Ó Murchú's salary although the senator refused to elucidate Goldhawk on the amount he takes out of his organisation every year......
Ó Murchú's ability to use the Seanad to push the interests of CCE was never clearer than with the passage of the Copyright Bill in 1999 which was initially opposed by the senator despite the fact that the Government was pushing it through. In this case, he put Comhaltas before FF but in a most Machiavellian manner, managed to end up onside at the end of the day after tying up a very unusual deal with the Irish Music Rights Organisation (IMRO) whereby CCE was issued a blanket licence "to cover all official Comhaltas functions".
The Letter of Agreement also stated that IMRO would fund CCE to the tune of €63,500 annually and also provided for an annual €32,000 subvention for the Brú Ború venue run by Ó Murchú's wife, Una. No other CCE centre was mentioned.
In return, CCE agreed "to support IMRO's submission to the Department of Enterprise, Trade & Employment in relation to the proposed Copyright Bill". In other words, Ó Murchú did a U-turn on his stance on the Bill but only when he protected CCE from the clutches of IMRO. Clearly, other traditional music bodies - outsiders in his eyes - could fend for themselves."

I also found a publication called 'Comhaltas 1968, which carried an article entitled 'A Library of Traditional Music'. The article states that CCE had just received a grant towards the establishment of such a library.
Can anybody tell me if a library or archive exists, as if so, where they are housed? If there are such facilities, how are they indexed and how can they be accessed?
In addition to all this, of course, are the collosal grants awarded to the organisation last year for capital projects.
Jim Carroll