On a lush little land-mass and in splendid isolation between London and New York sits Northern Ireland. Over-looked and perpetually underestimated, Northern Ireland is perceived to be nowhere near the ‘cutting edge’ of Western late capitalist culture. Belfast has been one of the last places in Western Europe to become assimilated into the ‘cosmopolitan’ mainstream. Our inevitable shift towards a homogenised, bourgeois, lifestyle-led culture is lamentable, the last nails in the coffin being the arrival of corporate coffeeshop franchises and the conversion of every inch of ex-industrial city centre real estate into contemporary-modern living space. But this comes in tandem with the good bits of pluralisation: ethnic diversity, a stronger economy, more nightlife, and crucially for me, the rise of the artist’s position within society.

Willie Doherty is currently over representing Northern Ireland at the Venice Biennale. Doherty has a pretty impressive international reputation within the art world, but if you ask the average Northern Irish person who he is, you’ll almost certainly be met with a shrug. The artist representing Britain this year is Tracey Emin. Thanks to the Sun newspaper and the rise of Brit Art in the 1990s, Emin is a household name. Indeed, many Brits might even go so far as to have an opinion on her work. Why this difference? Do the English public know something we don’t? Is art less important in Northern Ireland? Does our media talk about it less? Seemingly yes. For the past thirty odd years it’s reasonable to say that we’ve been distracted somewhat. But things are different now. In more ways than one, we are starting to be able to afford to have an arts scene. Which brings me to my first tip: Start buying local art. If you’re smart, you’ll go to this year’s degree shows and buy the art that you see and like. Mark my words, if you don’t buy it, someone else will, and twenty years down the line, you’ll grumble much if it transpires this hypothetical sub-Saatchi has a masterpiece on his hands that could have been yours.

We are now entering the second phase of the post-troubles era when we are starting to see the effects of peace. The generation of young people in their mid-teens about to come of age (with no experience whatsoever of the bad old days), has, due to peace and the opportunities it provides, the means to change Northern Ireland. These changes might be big political ones, such as legalising abortion, or they might be small personal victories, like not being scared to tell your parents you are gay. As the changes these young people make come into effect, the pervading burden of the troubles is simply phased out. Superfluous, it stops being a defining factor in everyday life and is consigned to where it belongs: history. Here is the paradigm shift. The troubles that once defined us, don’t define these youngsters. Their consciousness is evolved, free from all the psychological shackles the old Northern Ireland imposed on its youth. These kids are savvy, and because of a crucial new tool, the internet, they are indistinguishable from their teenage counterparts all across the western world. These kids are international – they lack none of the intellectual privileges that kids in bigger cities enjoy. When it comes to the arts this is all very exciting – it means a new attitude is defined within our youth – one that assumes dreams of being an artist or a musician are actually attainable – a tremendous leap.

We’re changing, but under no circumstances should we sacrifice the nuances and idiosyncrasies particularly of our subculture to try and compete with larger European cities on their level. Remember, the plan isn’t to be the most popular, the plan is to be the best. I don’t want Belfast to end up like Dublin, choking on yuppies, new money and self-parody. My hope is that Northern Ireland never plays catch-up to the hip metropolises oblivious to its humble comings and goings. My hope is that we achieve something far more ambitious: a reputation for a world class visionary culture. It is one that we have had in the past, but only in a few exceptional examples, (Van Morrison, for instance. He’s the world’s greatest white soul singer. He’s Northern Irish. That is impressive). My hope is that we get the reputation of being consistently ahead of the curve, outside the box.

If we are to be appraised thus en masse, we need more artists of the highest standard, more musicians making cutting edge music and we need to expose them. Northern Ireland sustains the creative life of an ever-growing number of young artists of all types. This is a great place to have an artistic practice – there’s an atmosphere of freedom and mutual respect here. But we don’t big ourselves up enough. We don’t talk about our artists. Last year I interviewed Turner prize nominee and beneficiary of the Northern Ireland arts scene Phil Collins who made the following statement, laced with hyperbole, but radical nonetheless: ‘Northern Irish artists Susan McWilliam and Dan Shipsides are two of the best artists in the world.’ I was shocked. It was something of an epiphany, not that these artists were good, but that a fellow artist would champion them so vehemently. I wasn’t used to hearing it.

‘Every culture creates the conditions of its own critique’ said the thinker Jean Fisher. It’s time for us to create ours. Welcome to Dispatches from the Last Post. This column exists to investigate Northern Irish culture in international terms with the underpinning axiom – and let this statement resound – Just because we’re provincially based, doesn’t mean we are provincially minded. We’re not the front line, we’re not London, we’re not New York, but we know what we’re talking about and yeah, we’re THAT good.