New transport hub opens without bilingual signage

A GROUP that campaigns for equal rights for Irish speakers in the North is considering legal action after Translink’s failure to erect bi-lingual signage at Belfast’s new £340 million transport hub.
 
Belfast Grand Central Station is set to open on Sunday when buses currently operating from the Europa BusCentre relocate to the new facility, which is the largest integrated transport hub in Ireland. Trains are also due to run from the eight platforms in the near future.
 
Ahead of Sunday’s opening, campaigners from An Dream Dearg have expressed their “disappointment” that the Irish language has been excluded from signage at the new hub.
 
“This isn’t just a transport hub for Belfast, this is a transport hub for people right across the island of Ireland who will be using it and will be arriving in Belfast as a destination,” said An Dream Dearg’s Ciarán Mac Giolla Bhéin. “And it is important that within that hub it is reflective of where we are as a city.

"We are not leaving it there, we are going to continue to press ahead and exploring our options in the future.

“We may well find ourselves going down the legal route but hopefully it can be solved before that,” Mr Mac Giolla Bhéin told the BBC.
 
In March this year, Minister for Infrastructure John O’Dowd confirmed his department’s support for promoting the Irish language on public services. It came in the wake of a meeting with Conradh na Gaeilge after An Dream Dearg held a protest outside the new transport hub which was then under construction.
 
The following month Belfast City Council passed a motion calling on Translink to install bilingual signage at Belfast Grand Central Station.

Translink said the company is “continuing to engage with all interested parties with regards to multi-lingual signage at Belfast Grand Central Station for the official opening in the autumn of 2025”.

“Recognising the diversity of language and culture in our society, Irish will feature, in common with a variety of other languages spoken in Northern Ireland, as part of the multi-lingual welcome signage which is in place for the operational opening for the station for bus services, on Sunday, 8 September 2024.”