'Nationalist supremacists trying to make unionists as uncomfortable as possible' on city council with Irish language plans: Jim Allister

​The TUV leader said that “it’s all about creating a gaelic persona for Belfast so that the non-gaelic unionist community feels as uncomfortable as possible in their own city”.

The move comes after the council unveiled a statue of Winifred Carney, a 1916 rebel (complete with a revolver in a holster) in the City Hall grounds last month.

Mr Allister told the News Letter all of this amounted to nationalists telling unionists “we’re going to rub your noses in it” since unionists no longer have a majority on the council.

"They’re guilty of actual supremacism, ramming everything they know is objectionable down the throats of unionists.

"They know what they’re doing: they’re doing it deliberately.

"It’s an indication of the emptiness of the promise of a new Ireland for all.”

There are 60 councillors in the city, 22 of whom are Sinn Fein, five are SDLP, 12 are Alliance, three are Green, one is People Before Profit, two are UUP, 14 are DUP, one is TUV.

The council’s influential Strategic Policy and Resources Committee agreed to back the six-figure plan to erect dual-language signs in the “gaeltacht quarter” of west Belfast last October.

The committee contains a mix of parties, including the DUP.

The minutes of the meeting say simply that the plan was “put to the meeting and passed”, but do not mention any vote.

Sarah Bunting, the DUP’s leader on the council (and a member of the Strategic Policy and Resources Committee) said no vote was taken, adding that given the balance of numbers unionists “were not in a position to stop the proposal”.

The same committee had approved the Winfred Carney statue back in May of 2021 (a plan which had been in gestation for several years before that).

DUP members have voiced opposition to the idea of dual language signs in the past in Belfast City Council’s area.

When news emerged that some were to be put up at Olympia Leisure Centre in south Belfast (next to the loyalist Village district) DUP councillor Tracy Kelly told the News Letter: "It’s the ‘Irishness’ that was associated with the Troubles.

"In the name of Ireland these people were blown up, bombed, and shot, maimed and killed, whatever.

"That still hurts in unionist communities, and anything to do with Ireland, Irish, is like a trigger-point and that’s more what’s behind the push-back on it...

"Why are these things being thrown in like a blinking hand-grenade, and poking people, and starting up trouble which is making it divisive?”

Also commenting on the Irish language plans was Jim Rodgers, a UUP man and the “father of the council”, being the longest-serving member with over 30 years as a councillor.

He said the present situation is “unfortunate” and that “it’s going to get worse”, adding that he has been contacted by Catholics and Protestants alike objecting to the spread of dual language signs, in large part due to people’s desire to keep rates as low as possible.

"But some people just don’t give a care,” he said of the advocates of dual-language signage.