QUB Irish language residential scheme will increase division

The decision of Queen’s University to introduce a residential scheme which will see Irish speakers housed together in halls of residence is a retrograde step.

No one has any issue with the use of Irish or any other language but the proposal to mark part of the accommodation off as for Irish language speakers only will have the consequence of making one section of the community feel unwelcome in that area and will feed the perception that Queen’s is a cold house for Unionists.

University should be a place where students feel free to mix freely with people from different cultures and backgrounds. The practical consequence of this move will, however, mark part of the university’s accommodation as belonging to one section of the community in Northern Ireland.

Attempts by some to argue that this is merely reflecting practice elsewhere ignores the fact that Irish has a particular association with one community in Northern Ireland and can only be maintained by those who adopt an ostrich like approach to the reality that the history of the use of Irish as a weapon. This was clearly stated in the Sinn Fein/IRA newspaper An Phoblacht when, under the headline ‘Irish is central to republican struggle’, they stated:

We believe that in the new dispensation, a rejuvenated and determined Republican Movement can utilise the language to such an extent that it can characterise our struggle in the new millennium”.

The practical consequence of this proposal will be to introduce accommodation marked off as being for one community.

Queen’s needs to look at how it can be more welcoming to students from all backgrounds and none.

There is a particular onus on them to encourage students from underrepresented groups within the student body like people from working class Protestant backgrounds, the people among whom I live and work. Yet should this proposal get the greenlight it will have the opposite effect.

Let’s not forget that Queen’s Student Union found itself on the wrong side of the Fair Employment Commission when it was required to remove Irish language signs as they were incompatible with a neutral working environment.

Ron McDowell, TUV, North Belfast

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