Community project says claims local leaders were 'very happy' about Irish language school are 'not accurate'
A community restorative justice project in East Belfast appears to have contradicted claims by the Irish language activist Linda Ervine that it had canvassed Clonduff community leaders and that they were supportive of a proposal for an Irish language primary school in the area.
There has been growing controversy over the proposals in the area, with a packed meeting in the estate on Thursday night hearing objections to the plans. Speakers, including the loyalist campaigner Jamie Bryson, say the community was not consulted and that there is no support in the area for the plans – particularly given the closure of a number of schools in the east of the city in recent years.
However, Sinn Fein, SDLP, Alliance and Green Party councillors have strongly backed the plans. The SDLP group leader on the council, Séamas de Faoite, said “If you’re campaigning against a school for wee kids in East Belfast just because they speak a different language, you’d want to catch yourself on”.
In June, the East Belfast Irish language activist Linda Ervine MBE, appeared at Belfast City Council’s Planning Committee to give evidence on the proposal. She told councillors that community leader in the nearby Clonduff housing estate “were very happy” with the proposals.
Ms Ervine said: “We have been working with a number of groups, including Church groups. I am part of Resolve, a community resolution organisation in East Belfast, and Sam White who heads that spoke to community leaders on the Clonduff estate, our nearest residential estate. Again, they were very happy and said they had no issue”.
At the weekend, a letter from Resolve Restorative Practices – which describes itself as a community-based service aiming to create a restorative society – said Ms Ervine’s claim that community leaders were “very happy” was “not accurate”.
The letter said that the group wished to “clarify” its position with regard to “the controversial proposal to insert an Irish language school into the Montgomery Road area adjacent to the Clonduff estate”.
The letter stated: “We are aware there have been representations made which suggested that this organisation had consulted with community representatives in the Clonduff area and that said persons had indicated they were ‘very happy’ with the proposal. This is not accurate and does not reflect the position of this group or the stakeholders with whom we work in the local area”.
It said that one of its workers “was asked to give a personal view in respect of the proposal. This view was not representative of Resolve or the local community, and nor did it purport to be. We support the right of all those who work with Resolve to express personal views, but it is vitally important that any such views are neither misrepresented nor presented as being representative of our organisation, let alone the wider community. We do not believe our practitioner was responsible for the misrepresentation of his personal view, but rather others used this situation to contrive the illusion of support for a proposal which is clearly not in keeping with the wishes of the vast majority of those who live in the locality”.
The News Letter has contacted Linda Ervine for a response to the organisation’s letter.