Belfast Lyric nears target following £1m donation

Published Tuesday 26 June 2007 at 16:50 by Michael Quinn

Belfast’s Lyric Theatre has received a massive boost to its campaign to raise funds for a new home with a record-breaking £1 million donation from a local business tycoon.

The sum, given by Dr Martin Naughton and his wife, Carmel, is the largest ever donation made by an individual to a Northern Irish arts organisation.

Naughton, an enthusiastic supporter of the arts, founded the Glen Dimplex company in Newry in 1973. It is now the world’s leading manufacturer of electric heaters and has 22 companies around the globe, with its major brands including Morphy Richards, Dimplex and Belling.

The donation comes at a critical time for the Lyric, Northern Ireland’s only building-based producing company, as it moves tantalisingly close to raising the £16 million necessary to build a new state of the art home on the site of its existing premises. The present donation takes the company to within £2 million of its target.

The Lyric is expected to close its doors at the end of 2007 with its new two-auditorium theatre, designed by Dublin-based architects O’Donnell & Tuomey, scheduled to open in 2010. It will house a 400-seat main stage and a flexible 150-seat space that will now be called the Naughton Studio.

Welcoming the donation, Lyric chairman Mark Carruthers said the theatre was “overwhelmed by the support and encouragement we have received from the Naughtons” and hoped that “other local business leaders and philanthropists will take inspiration from the Naughtons’ lead to help us create a lasting legacy for future generations”.