Attack on east Belfast Irish language sign 'was predictable and will happen again'

​Ron McDowell made the comments today after the PSNI issued an appeal to find the culprit or culprits behind the act of vandalism in Shandon Park – an affluent neighbourhood in the largely-unionist east of the city.

Councillor McDowell, the TUV’s sole member on the council and the party’s deputy leader, condemned the vandalism and urged others not to follow suit, though he indicated that the crime was an anticipated response to “the unreasonable approach from Irish language enthusiasts” in “imposing” such signage to begin with.

Sometime around 8.15pm on Saturday, a street sign for Shandon Park was cut with an angle grinder to remove the words ‘Pairc an tSeanduin’.

Police described the action as “hate-motivated” and have appealed for witnesses.

New bilingual signs for the street were installed despite half the residents of the street explicitly rejecting them.

Speaking on The Nolan Show on BBC Radio Ulster today, he said: “We've been warning about the imposition and the provocation of the Irish language and can in the unionist areas for years now, and the unrelenting approach from Irish language, Irish language enthusiasts would tell me, tell you, that they don't care – they're just prepared to steamroller everybody in their path.”

He went on to say that “unionism has been offering an olive branch towards the Irish language for a long time now” and that they had not opposed them in west Belfast.

However “we crossed the Rubicon” last month when the council adopted a much more expansive Irish language signage policy.

Asked about the potential for loyalists to escalate such vandalism, he said: “I don't think that it's merely loyalists that are doing that.

"I think that people are so motivated by this in their own street that you'll have normal people who will come out and put a bit of spray can over the Irish language.”

He added: "For me to come onto your show and say that I don't think that Irish language signs will be attacked again in the future, I would be lying…

"They shouldn't do it, and they’ll end up with a criminal record, and we're discouraging anybody who's considering it, but it is going to happen.”

DUP East Belfast MLA David Brooks asked the justice minister Naomi Long for assurances that investigations would also be launched into damage to other signs across Northern Ireland.

“I think the damaging of street signs in general is one of the most petty and childish acts that a person can undertake,” replied Mrs Long, adding that it was a question for the PSNI to answer, not her.

Tonight, the DUP tabled a motion for debate in Stormont saying that “this Assembly deplores that, since 2022, only 12% of applications for Irish language street signs approved by Belfast City Council commanded the majority support of residents living there, according to recent media reports”.

The motion called the policy “undemocratic and oppressive” and and amounts to “marking territory”.

It also voiced “alarm” that “in a number of cases residents have been surveyed repeatedly in an attempt to garner the necessary support”.