Michelle O'Neill wades into dispute after Irish language protest at new Belfast station

SINN FÉIN VICE president Michelle O’Neill has said she “commends the activists” who took part in a protest yesterday over the lack of Irish language signage at Belfast’s new Grand Central Station.

Around 100 Irish language campaigners staged a demonstration in the new transport hub after it officially opened without any Irish language signage.

Members of Irish language campaign group An Dream Dearg placed a large flag bearing the group’s logo across the floor of the station yesterday.

An Dream Dearg was founded to progress an Irish Language Act in Northern Ireland.

Dr Pádraig Ó Tiarnaigh, a spokesperson for An Dream Dearg, said an “entire community has been excluded”.

Grand Central Station

The new €400 million transport hub officially opened on Monday, having welcomed its first passengers last Sunday morning.

The station will open in phases, with train services to begin later this year.

It’s set to become the largest integrated transport hub on the island of Ireland, replacing the Europa Bus Centre and the former Great Victoria Street Station.

However, the new station quickly garnered criticism for lacking signage in the Irish language.

At the official opening on Monday, Sinn Féin MLA and Transport Minister John O’Dowd said he was “disappointed we haven’t reached a resolution” around Irish language signage in the transport hub.

O’Dowd said it is “important that the Irish language is visible” and that he was working with Northern Ireland’s public transport service Translink on the issue.

O’Dowd added that he was “confident that this will be successfully resolved, and we will see more visibility of the Irish language in this and other public buildings”.

Speaking following a meeting of the North South Ministerial Council at Dublin Castle today, Sinn Féin’s Michelle O’Neill said it’s a “hugely positive development” that the new station is open.

She also said that she “commends the activists for being on the ground”.

However, O’Neill added that “we have to get to the point where we have that dual language signage”.

She noted that Transport Minister O’Dowd has “committed to working with the sector and ensuring that’s the case for the full opening when we come to that point next year”.

Speaking on the Irish language more generally, O’Neill pointed to the passing of the Irish Language Act as a “significant win for all of the activists and those of us that have been very passionate about it”.

The plan includes an Irish Language Commissioner and a commissioner to develop language, arts and literature associated with the Ulster Scots/Ulster British tradition.

O’Neill said “we’re now in that implementation phase” and that she’s hopeful that “in the immediate period ahead, we’re going to recruit commissioners for all the offices that were agreed on the legislation”.

‘Challenges in different communities’

Speaking alongside O’Neill, Tánaiste Micheál Martin remarked that “there’s been a tremendous flourishing of the Irish language on the island more generally”.

He said “there’s a much more relaxed engagement to the language and a more comfortable relationship with the language than might have been when I was going to primary school”.

“Sometimes we need to look at the positives and try to advance those positives and bring people with us,” said Martin.

While he said there are “challenges and difficulties in different communities” in engaging with the Irish language, he added that “as someone who’s a former teacher of the Irish language, I always see it as a force for sharing community”.

“That’s the kind of approach I would take, and I would work with language organisations across the island in terms of advancing the enjoyment of the Irish language,” said Martin.

He also noted that “different traditions on the island historically have contributed to saving many aspects of the Irish language”.

Martin pointed to Church of Ireland authorities “who were the scholars of an early era and who did so much to preserve Irish language texts prior to Irish independence and so forth”.

“Different traditions have been part of the Irish language,” said Martin, “so we need to create that broader community which doesn’t see language as a threat to facilitating the growth of different languages, cultures and traditions.”