First dual Irish/English road sign approved for Portadown

Armagh, Banbridge and Craigavon council has backed its first-ever application for bilingual street signs.

Irish and English signage at Woodside Gardens, Portadown has been recommended for adoption by a committee and the proposal will go before the full council next week.

No Irish language signage has been approved by the unionist controlled ABC council since it first came into existence in 2015.

The application was originally made in October 2023 by residents in the Woodside Gardens area of Portadown, close to the historically tense Garvaghy Road

A previous vote at the committee ultimately saw the defeat of the proposal. MP Carla Lockhart of the DUP told that meeting that the plans were part of “a concerted effort to cleanse this area of Protestantism”.

The plan came back before the committee this week and was passed after winning support from Sinn Féin and Alliance members.