Irish language training offered to education staff

All staff in the Education Authority (EA) are to be offered training in the Irish language and Ulster Scots.

Training will not be mandatory and English will remain the “principal language” of the EA.

It is one of the measures in new interim policies for both languages being consulted on by the authority.

Due to the need for translation, the EA has also said it would take slightly longer to reply to correspondence in Irish and Ulster Scots than in English.

Irish language and Ulster Scots legislation was recently passed by the House of Commons.

It was introduced in May 2022 following commitments from the government in the New Decade, New Approach deal agreed in 2020.

However, it has not yet received Royal Assent and so a commissioner for the Irish language and a commissioner for the “Ulster Scots and Ulster British tradition” have not yet been appointed.

Phrases and pronunciations

The EA said its new policies for Irish and Ulster Scots could be updated or changed by the commissioners when they were in place.

However, the authority has introduced interim policies to set out what services and information Irish and Ulster Scots speakers can expect from it.

That includes things like how the languages will be used:

• In EA documents and information
• In face-to-face meetings and phone calls
• In response to letters or emails

The authority said it normally responded to correspondence in English within 10 working days, but “taking into account the need to have the information translated” responses to correspondence in Irish and Ulster Scots would take 15 working days.

The training being offered to staff in Irish includes the legal framework for the Irish language, some key phrases and pronunciations and an overview of Irish culture and Irish medium education.

‘Cultural markers’

The Ulster Scots training is similar, but also includes a section on “common myths about Ulster Scots”.

The new interim language policies cover services provided by the authority but not what is taught about Irish or Ulster Scots in schools.

In 2021-22 there were 7,232 pupils in Irish medium education, a rise of almost 25% from 5,863 five years ago.

A consultation on the EA’s interim language policies will run until 27 February 2023.

When introducing the new language laws in May, the UK government also gave official recognition to Ulster Scots as a national minority under the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities.

That gave Ulster Scots a status as a minority group similar to Irish, Welsh, Scots, and Cornish minorities.

The Ulster Scots Agency has previously said it is drawing up “cultural markers” which could identify someone as a member of the Ulster Scots community.

The markers are characteristics that might identify Ulster Scots even if they do not speak the language, such as Scottish origin, language, literature, religion, philosophy and political outlook, festivals, music, dance, sport and food.

The agency has not clarified if that work has been completed.

However, according to the EA screening of its new interim language policies, “concerns around cultural markers was expressed by the Committee on the Administration of Justice in relation to potential sectarianisation of Ulster Scots, by changing parameters of who is an Ulster Scot”.

“There are people with Ulster Scots identity or Ulster Scots affinity but who may not wish to be designated or accepted as a separate ethnic group,” said the EA equality screening document for Ulster Scots.