Row over Ulster Scots on west Belfast park signage divides councillors

Sinn Féin and the DUP have clashed over whether Ulster Scots should be included on signage at a west Belfast park.

The row broke out at a meeting of Belfast City Council’s Strategic Policy and Resources Committee on Friday as parties discussed signage along the length of the new Forth Meadow Community Greenway.

Plans for signage at Springfield Dam - also known as Springfield Park - which is part of the Greenway saw councillors divided over whether two or three languages should feature.

Sinn Féin argued a council committee had already agreed to English and Irish signage at the park, while the DUP proposed English, Irish and Ulster Scots to be used

The Alliance Party argued that trilingual signs should be used on all signage along the full length of the Greenway, with the Greens in support

In the end, a Sinn Féin proposal to follow officer recommendations and have only English and Irish at Springfield Dam was voted for by a tight margin. This decision will have to go to the full council on Monday November 4 for ratification, but is likely to pass.

The Forth Meadow Community Greenway is a £5.1million EU Peace IV-funded project connecting existing open spaces in north and west Belfast along a 12km route from Clarendon Playing Fields to the new Grand Central Station in the city centre.

• On the Alliance proposal for trilingual signage on the full length of the Greenway, five were in support from Alliance and the Greens, while 15 were against, from Sinn Féin, the DUP and the SDLP.

On the DUP proposal for trilingual signage at Springfield Dam, nine were in favour from the DUP and Alliance, 10 were against, from Sinn Féin and the SDLP, while one Green councillor abstained.

On the Sinn Féin proposal for only English and Irish at Springfield Dam, 15 were in favour from Sinn Féin, Alliance, the SDLP and the Greens, while five were against, from the DUP.

Alliance councillor Michael Long told the chamber: “This is a Peace IV-funded project and is meant to bring areas of the city together, so we would prefer to avoid demarcating territory, and have a single policy right along. We would be keen to broaden it just beyond English, because there are obviously place names right along there that are from a Scottish background, or from Irish, and indeed English.”

DUP Alderman Frank McCoubrey said: “When this came up last year I was concerned that people from the unionist community would see if it was only the Irish language, that (they would think) one community was dominant over this project. One that was funded by the EU, in a peace and reconciliation project. I am still concerned.”

Sinn Féin’s Ciaran Beattie said: “For us, Springfield Dam is in the Gaeltacht Quarter, which was agreed by this council in 2011, after Deloitte were employed to identify what the Gaeltacht Quarter would be. That has been the policy of this council since then.”

Green councillor Áine Groogan said: “Having a Greenway with multiple different sections with multiple different languages - some have Irish, some have Ulster Scots – it is messy for a start.

“It strays into very dangerous territory, that languages are for certain areas, and certain parts of the community. When that is exactly the opposite way we should be going.”