‘Embarrassing episode' for Belfast City Council as typos spotted on Irish language signs

An “embarrassing episode” for Belfast City Council has been blasted after spelling errors were spotted on new Irish-language street signs.

The signs are being replaced after mistakes were seen in streets across the city, including La Salle Park in west Belfast, Haypark Avenue in the south and Ashgrove Park in the north.

SDLP councillor Séamas de Faoite has asked how the errors came to be made.

“It’s staggering that we have ended up with Irish-language signage with incorrect translations being installed,” he said.

“After the SDLP raised this issue with council we established that the correct spelling and translation were used in the committee report for this sign and this was provided to the contractor.

“I welcome confirmation from council that the contractor will cover the cost of replacing these signs but questions remain about how this was allowed to happen in the first place.

“We need to see significant checks put in place to ensure that this never happens again. We should not have been put in a position where clearly incorrect signs were installed in our community.”

Mr de Faoite said securing Irish or dual-language signs can take serious effort from campaigners and councillors.

“This has been an embarrassing episode for the council,” he added.

“The least we should expect is that when requests for these signs pass through council that we can see them put in place in the correct manner.”

A Belfast City Council spokesperson said: “Belfast City Council is aware of spelling errors on five dual-language street signs in three different streets.

“These are currently in the process of being replaced at no additional cost to the council.

“A quality check is also underway of other recently installed signage.

“We apologise for this error and will be urgently reviewing our quality assurance processes to ensure this does not happen again.”