Letter: To ignore unionist concerns about Irish signage at Olympia Leisure Centre is a serious violation of these communities’ human rights
A letter from Dr Paul Kingsley:
The two barristers’ rejection of the call-in objecting to Belfast City Council’s decision to erect Irish signage at Olympia Leisure Centre has all the makings of a political and legal crisis.
The lawyers’ advice, which has been published (click here to read it), was followed by a decision to go ahead with Irish signage by the full council .
These barristers decided to go off in a completely different direction from their legal counterparts who advised on a previous call-in on the same Olympia signage issue. It is also contrary to the line of inquiry taken by the authors of the council’s own Equality Impact Assessment (EQIA).
In both of these earlier investigations, the primary method was to identify impacts that could harm good relations and thus infringe Belfast City Council’s obligations under Section 75(2) of the Northern Ireland Act.
The council’s EQIA said: “The evidence that is available to date, and including the previous round of public consultation in 2019/20 along with the current consultation, does indicate that the proposal for bilingual naming and signage has the potential to have an adverse impact on good relations on grounds of religious belief, political opinion, and also perhaps national identity” (par 4.20).
The legal opinion obtained in response to the most recent call-in seems to draw the conclusion that the council is under no obligation to take account of its duty to promote good relations under Section 75(2) in cases that involve Irish signage. It is at odds with all arguments set out in the previous legal advice and the EQIA which point out the adverse impacts of Irish signage at Olympia.
If indeed it were established that unionist communities’ Irish signage concerns could simply be ignored then this would lead to a serious violation of these communities’ human rights, and would damage community relations. Belfast City Council could be in breach of its legal obligations under Section 75(2). It could lead to Irish signage being erected in a wide range of leisure centres against the wishes of the local unionist population. This could also be a threat to public order.
Dr Paul Kingsley, Belfast BT4