Legal opinion rejects DUP claim about dual signage at south Belfast leisure centre

A last-ditch effort by the DUP to block dual language signage at a south Belfast leisure centre has failed.

DUP representatives on Belfast City Council had “called-in” the proposal for dual language signs at Olympia leisure centre on the basis that it would “disproportionately affect adversely any section of the inhabitants of the district”.

A motion supporting the English and Irish signage was first passed in 2021, while a petition supporting the move was delivered to city hall in September last year.

The council-run leisure centre is located off the Boucher Road in the shadow of Windsor Park, close to the predominantly unionist Village area.

DUP councillor Bradley Ferguson previously claimed the dual signage was “being forced upon people in a community which do not wish to see it”.

The decision was then called-in, meaning the council sought an independent legal opinion.

Councillors were presented with the legal opinion at their monthly meeting on Monday night.

According to barristers Monye Anyadike-Danes and Aidan McGowan, the call-in has no basis.

The lawyers concluded that the “call-in does not establish that the decision would disproportionately affect any section of the inhabitants of the district”.

The proposal for dual signage was subsequently passed by 41 votes to 16.

SDLP councillor Carl Whyte said the DUP’s “latest failed attempt to block Irish language signage” had cost Belfast ratepayers “thousands of pounds in legal fees”.

“The legal opinion simply told us what everyone already knows – that Irish language speakers are entitled to see signage in English and Irish across our main facilities and that there is no legal barrier to this happening,” he said.

“The majority of people in all parts of Belfast and from all backgrounds are supportive of the Irish language and will rightly see these time and money-wasting distractions from the DUP precisely for what they are – an attempt to damage community relations and stoke up tensions.”