Translink force Irish speakers to the 'back of the bus'

IRISH language campaigners have expressed their bitter disappointment following the unveiling of Belfast’s new Grand Central Station yesterday, which showed a complete absence of dual language signage in Ireland’s largest transport hub.

Irish language groups and campaigners have been in continuous contact with Translink since the plans for the new transport hub went ahead in 2021.

Cuisle Nic Liam from Conradh na Gaelige said Translink have been shown the consistent support for dual signage and have still chosen not to implement in, leaving Irish speakers feeling as though they have been forced to the back of the bus.

Cuisle said: “Since 2021 we have been consistently calling on Translink and engaging with them to ensure Translink would make the hub an inclusive and shared island and city-wide place for everyone. We wanted the hub to be reflective of Belfast and the growing number of people here who are choosing to live their lives through the medium of Irish.

“We’ve reached out to Translink on numerous occasions to seek meetings and when they were to no avail we reached out to Minister John O’Dowd once he came into office. Before, when there was no Stormont up and running, they had been using that as an excuse to put off making a decision but once we met John O’Dowd, he was very supportive and the meeting was very positive.

“Belfast City Council, who are the political mandate for the city have also written to Translink to ask that there be dual-language signage and it was also supported by the statuatory body Foras na Gaelige and we felt we had a very strong case to get the signage in. We received support as well from all across Belfast and across the island."

Cuisle said that Translink have previously implemented dual signage in stations such as in Newry but have deliberately chosen not to implement it at Grand Central Station creating what Irish speakers describe as a ‘multi-million monolingual monolith’.

“This is also something Translink have done in the past so it’s not something which is alien to them – Newry train station for example is completely bilingual so they do know how to provide state-of-the-art provision.

“We just find is very difficult to accept their excuse for not having bilingual signage on what is the biggest transport hub on the island of Ireland in a city which has a growing number of speakers.

“Translink are travelling in the wrong direction on Irish language rights. We spoke to Chris Connolly, the CEO, at the beginning of the summer and they said they would be undertaking a consultation meeting with ‘all affected groups’ but now the decision has been made to create this multi-million monolingual monolith.”

Going forward Conradh na Gaelige and other Irish language groups have said they will be continuing their campaign and also noted that the cost of implementing Irish language signage would be a lot less if it was included in the original design, instead of having to go back after the fact and add it in.

“Translink have a duty to provide dual language signage as part of the European Charter and also due to the sheer amount of support expressed from the Minister, Belfast City Council, organisations and the general public. To say we are extremely disappointed is an understatement and I think it’s a complete dereliction of duty on behalf of Translink.

“What we are talking about is dual-language, it’s not Irish replacing English, it’s both languages together. It’s about equality.

"Also, cost-effectively speaking, it will cost them a lot more to add them in now everything is completed when they just could have added them in at the start after so many already expressed their support for it.

“Going forward we will be continuing with our campaign and we have written to Minister O’Dowd to request another meeting but we won’t be giving up and having Irish language speakers forced to sit at the back of the bus.”