Irish language campaigners call on Stormont and two governments to fulfil legislative commitments

OVER 70 representatives from the Irish language community have come together to call on the Northern Executive and the British and Irish Governments to fulfil their legislative commitments to the Irish language.

An Dream Dearg erected a large television screen at the steps of Stormont today where they broadcast the message calling for the immediate implementation of Irish language legislation agreed in the New Decade, New Approach Agreement.

Laws to protect both the Irish language and Ulster Scots were agreed as part of a cultural package contained in the agreement.

Today’s broadcast from An Dream Dearg comes 500 days after legislation was promised.

Pádraig Ó Tiarnaigh from An Dream Dearg said: "The Good Friday Agreement was to herald a new era of equality regarding the Irish language. Next, the St Andrew’s Agreement committed parties and Governments to an Irish Language Act. In recent years, the Irish language community has shone a light on the age old and ongoing exclusion and marginalisation of our community.

"The consistent failure to ensure rights-based language legislation for our community is fully at odds with all of our main political agreements. We have consistently stood against those who would continue to marginalise, exclude and ignore our legitimate demands for rights and respect.

“Last year, the Executive was re-established on the basis of the New Decade New Approach Agreement. We said then, as we say now, that the NDNA language legislation falls well short of what we expect or what we were promised, but that it was an important staging post in our on-going journey towards comprehensive, rights-based language legislation.”

“Now, 500 days have passed since that legislation was promised, and still we wait. A majority of parties and MLAs support a rights-based Irish Language Act, as well as the language legislation agreed last year. Today, we say to those who continue to exclude our community that we stand united for our language rights; to those parties who support our campaign, we ask you again; stand with us, stand up for our rights; to the two governments – you are not neutral, you are not external mediators, you are co-authors and co-guarantors of these agreements.

“No more delays, no more excuses. It is time to implement Irish language legislation.”