Plans for Irish language signs at leisure centre put on hold

Last September, a council committee passed a Sinn Fein proposal to erect bilingual external naming and internal directional signage at Olympia Leisure Centre by 12 members to six, with one abstention.

The Strategic Policy and Resources Committee also agreed that a report on linguistic accessibility at Lisnasharragh and Templemore Leisure Centres be submitted to a future meeting, and that a multilingual welcome sign be erected in the entrance/reception area of all leisure centres.

This decision was subjected to a successful “call-in” tabled by the DUP, effectively stalling the decision for further review. City Solicitor John Walsh told councillors the call-in was successful on the basis that council officers believed an external report showed there was the potential for “adverse community impact.”

The Olympia Leisure Centre on Boucher Road is flanked on its north side by Tates Avenue and the Village, a majority loyalist area.

At this month’s meeting of the full council (Monday January 10), the DUP called for the decision to be scrapped altogether, but were told it would have to return to committee level again for elected members to consider the next move.

If councillors again vote for dual signage at Olympia it will have to go for a full equality impact assessment specifically for that leisure centre.

Alderman Brian Kingston said the decision “flew in the face of local consultation.” He told the chamber: “88.7 percent of those who identified as protestant in the local community advocated for English-only signage. There was also a petition, signed by 571 people, calling for English-only signage.

“While some parties ignored our own consultation, the DUP did call this matter in when the council voted for bilingual signage, and we welcome that our legal advisor supported our call-in, that it did have merit, and it was seen there would be detrimental impact on members of the protestant community.

“We believe that should be the matter put to bed. We don’t see the need for it going back to committee, the call-in has been successful, and we don’t support prolonging the matter.”

People Before Profit Councillor Fiona Ferguson told the chamber: “The idea that the erection of Irish language signs could represent the erosion of someone else’s culture is ludicrous, and it is suggested within the report. It is a result of scaremongering around the Irish language, in order to denigrate it.

“The Irish language is a living, growing, prospering part of culture here. The number of gaelgory here shows it, while gaelscoils are oversubscribed and are popping up in areas like East Belfast. It is undeniable that there are shifting dynamics at play here, and that the Irish language is being reinvigorated right across this city.

“I think this council should welcome and foster that, and it has a responsibility to act where there are ideas and fears that are whipped up, which may be genuine, but which we have a responsibility to assuage. Putting up Irish language signs is not a threat.”

She added: “There is nothing to fear from greater visibility of the Irish language, in fact there is a lot to gain. The recent opening of the naiscoil in east Belfast shows the new areas showing interest in the Irish language – that is something I think we should foster and see blossom.

“Indeed there is a very rich history of both protestants and catholics being involved in the revitalisation of the Irish language, right across this city and right across the north.

“It’s 2022, more and more people are living their lives through Irish and deserve to get represented in the services they use and the services they pay for. We hope to see better outreach from the council to these communities about this issue.”

In October 2019 a city-wide consultation around dual-language signage was commissioned to inform the approach to be adopted in respect of Andersonstown, Lisnasharragh, Olympia and Templemore Leisure Centres, which were deemed to have a “city-wide catchment.”

In January 2020 a committee granted approval to erect bilingual external naming and internal directional signage in Andersonstown Leisure Centre.

Equality consultant Mr. John Kremer confirmed that there had been overall support for bilingual naming, using English and Irish, but where more local consultation had been undertaken, strong opposition and views had been expressed in relation to Lisnasharragh and Templemore Leisure Centres.

A council report states that in terms of Olympia Leisure Centre, Mr Kremer said his consultation “had not provoked the same reaction at that time.” The report adds he and council officers had met subsequently with local community representatives “who had expressed strong views against bilingual signage in English and Irish.”

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