'They are causing resentment': Protest to be staged over Irish signs at Belfast City Council leisure centre in south Belfast
The organiser of a protest against Irish langauge signs at a Belfast leisure centre has said they will “cause ongoing resentment” as long as they remain.
Billy Dickson, a long-standing unionist campaigner in south Belfast, is behind the demonstration at 7.30pm tomorrow at the Olympia Leisure Centre off the Boucher Road.
Among those attending will be TUV deputy leader Ron McDowell.
The protest centres on dual-language signs now in place at the centre, which stands on the edge of the loyalist-dominated Village district.
It comes after Belfast City Council is facing flak over both a 2022 policy of adding Irish to street signs if 15% of the street want it, and over the expansive new plan it adopted this month to spread the language across all council facilities.
In a statement sent to the News Letter, Mr Dickson of the Blackstaff Residents Association said: “The dual language signage (Irish and English) has now been forced upon our community that made it clear during consultation that it was not needed nor wanted.
"On Wednesday, October 1, as residents were making their way to their monthly meeting at Olympia Leisure Centre, they noticed for the first time the dual language signs and their reaction was of indignation, that the unwelcome and divisive signage had been forced upon them.”
He went on to say that “there has never been a celtic culture within the local community, and its roots are with those of a predominantly Ulster Scots and English lineage”, and added: “The new signs will never be accepted and as long as they remain, they will be contentious and cause ongoing resentment by the local community – feelings that should not be part of the experience of using a local leisure centre.
"We would make it clear that it was the local community that worked hard to establish leisure and community provision on the Olympia site from what was once part of the Bog Meadows.
"Without their efforts there would never have been an Olympia Leisure Centre that was built originally for the local community.”
Councillor McDowell meanwhile said “it’s a really, really strong emotive issue,” adding that the addition of Irish to signs in the centre creates a “chill factor” which is “very real”.
He expects the protest will involve about 50 people.
"The message is that the politicisation of shared spaces defies the name,” he told the News Letter.
"It’s not a shared space, and we’re determined not to let it become a cold house for unionism.”
He understands the new Irish language signs are “pretty much widespread”, ranging from changing rooms to exits.