Letter: Foisting Irish language signs in unionist areas provides a glimpse of the shared future for all

I read the reports of Belfast Council plans to erect Irish language signs in the Olympia Leisure centre with interest (‘DUP figures call for Irish sign rejection,’ June 14).

When the Irish Free State was formed in 1921, in a frantic attempt to dilute traces of Britishness, it brought in a new flag, the IRA tricolour, and made Irish the main language of the state.

To this end, all public signs went bi-lingual, with English being relegated to a subservient place, despite the fact that the majority of the population spoke English and it discriminated against the Protestant minority.

Happily, even after a century of what amounted to linguistic coercion, fluent Irish speakers are still a minority in the Republic.

It is interesting to see that Sinn Fein/Alliance councillors in Belfast, (and in other councils too), are following the same line as the Free State government in the 1920s and foisting Irish language signs in unionist areas where there is no demand for such signage.

It is also interesting to note that the Irish part of these signs is given prominence over the English, just as pertains in the Republic.

One cannot help but conclude that these Irish language signs are a strategy by Sinn Fein, and their little helpers in the Alliance Party, to promote republican symbolism in those areas where the flying of the Tricolour would not be tolerated.

In short, Irish language signage is an oblique way of flying the Irish Tricolour in areas where it is unacceptable to the locals.

So much for a shared future for all.

Tom Ferguson, Ballymoney