Sinn Fein seems to have no interest in consensus over the Irish language

At present two thirds of respondents in an area need to support such a change in their area before it is introduced.

Now republicans want that to drop to a simple majority of the vote, and for non respondents to be discarded.

This would lead to an immediate advantage towards those who are most motivated on the matter, which would be republicans.

Why do they talk about a New Ireland and then behave in this way? If there was genuine goodwill and a genuine attempt to bring people along with their goals, then they would be welcoming the hurdles before Irish signage is brought in, and advertising the fact — because it would show that they wanted agreement over the use of Irish.

Last year we reported on how Dermot Nesbitt, a moderate unionist politician, had come to rethink his support for an Irish language act after the local council put up Irish-first signage on a leisure facility in Saintfield, where there is no indication of public demand for it. Such actions suggest that elements of nationalism are more interested in marking territory than cross-community goodwill.

It hardly helps that a powerful new Irish language commissioner is about to come into being as a result of republican blackmail.