An Irish language commissioner will further marginalise unionists, whose politicians must resist it at all costs

It appears that the secretary of state is pressurising the unionist political parties into accepting some form of Irish language act (ILA) to return devolved government.
By The Newsroom
Published 22nd Dec 2019, 01:00 BST
Updated 22nd Dec 2019, 01:09 BST
Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Julian Smith at Stormont in Belfast for talks on December 19. "It appears that the secretary of state is pressurising the unionist political parties into accepting some form of Irish language act to return devolved government," writes Dr Cooke. Photo: David Young/PASecretary of State for Northern Ireland Julian Smith at Stormont in Belfast for talks on December 19. "It appears that the secretary of state is pressurising the unionist political parties into accepting some form of Irish language act to return devolved government," writes Dr Cooke. Photo: David Young/PA
Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Julian Smith at Stormont in Belfast for talks on December 19. "It appears that the secretary of state is pressurising the unionist political parties into accepting some form of Irish language act to return devolved government," writes Dr Cooke. Photo: David Young/PA

The DUP, early in 2018 signalled that they would accept a ILA and it was possible to conclude from a BBC report on Thursday night that the UUP might too. But the UUP said yesterday that they opposed such an act.

Unionists have every right to be fearful of one.

Professor John Wilson Foster and Dr James Dingley (see links below) have already on these pages warned of the cultural disadvantages that an ILA will create for unionists.

Letter to the editorLetter to the editor
Letter to the editor
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I am horrified about the potential such an act has for further marginalising the unionist community.

If an ILA is accompanied by an Irish language commissioner’s office (ILCO), the potential for expanding the language into different employment sectors is exponential.

An ILCO will function to the detriment of the non-speaking Irish communities in the same way as other official offices have disadvantaged the unionist community.

The ILCO and the corresponding NI government department that will oversee it will be populated by fluent Irish speakers.

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A new commission might be able to impose (with the support of the courts) legal obligations on the public sector and on larger employers within the private sector.

These obligations will have attached to them enormous costs and employers will have to embrace Irish speaking abilities into their employment criteria.

Non-Irish speakers could ultimately be legally discriminated against when seeking employment in schools, universities, local government offices, the civil service, the courts, etc.

The likelihood is that an Irish commissioner will be able to continually redefine his / her remit, increasing the powers of the commission into areas not originally envisaged.

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An ILA will marginalise and increasingly marginalised academically under-achieving Protestant community in the workplace.

Children currently working their way through Irish medium schools will be automatically advantaged by an ILA. Sinn Fein are obsessed about an act for the cultural and employment benefits it will bring to the nationalist community.

Politicians who are concerned about marginalisation of Protestants and unionists must do everything in their power to resist this act.

Dr Edward Cooke, Netownabbey

James Dingley: Republicans use Irish language as weapon in their long war

John Wilson Foster: Irish language act would be long-term threat to Union

Related topics:DUPUnionistsUUPPoliticiansSinn Fein