DUP efforts to prevent the display of a Happy Christmas sign in Irish on Belfast City Hall were defeated in a vote on Monday night.
The festive signs were used in English on the front and side entrances last year, with one in Irish also used on the side entrance.
Last night at Belfast City Council’s policy and resources committee, the DUP proposed not to use an Irish sign this year but instead to replace it with a new sign which would give festive greetings in some 18 languages of people now living in Belfast.
However, 29 councillors from the Alliance Party, SDLP and Sinn Fein defeated the DUP proposal, which was backed by 19 councillors from the UUP, DUP and PUP.
Alliance Party councillor Mervyn Jones said: “To be honest, any sign which had 18 languages on it would not be visible from the road. The end result of it all was that things remain the same as they were last year.”
DUP Alderman Ruth Patterson said: “It makes you wonder how important equality really is to those parties that voted against us. The languages of all those ethnic minorities who live and work in Belfast will now not be included.”
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