People can apply for signs to be made bilingual, and in 2023 there were over 600 such requests. In the past road signs could only be changed if two thirds of the road's residents asked for it, but the threshold in Belfast has now been cut to 15 per cent.
There are two opposing views on bilingual signs. One says that because most people here speak English, adding Irish is unnecessary and costly, and is just a pointless political gesture by Irish language campaigners.
The other viewpoint is that the Irish language needs to be supported and promoted and used more widely as it's an important part of Irish culture, and those opposing bilingual signs are just being narrow-minded and obstinate.
I must say I tend to support the unnecessary-and-costly argument. If people want to learn and promote Irish, fine, it's a wonderful language, but why bilingual road signs? If most people speak English I don't see the need for them.
If we can find our way around quite adequately with an English road sign, why add Irish?
The bilingual road sign issue came to mind because a Welsh language campaigner is currently embroiled in a three year legal battle after refusing to pay a £70 car park penalty notice written only in English. Toni Schiavone will only pay the penalty notice if it's translated into Welsh, and he says he's being unfairly harassed.
I'm keeping well out of the language controversy. Or as an Irish speaker would say "Tá mé ag éirí go maith as".
Anonymous Fly. Follow this logic on the mainland and Leicester will have street signs in English and Gujerati.
ReplyDeleteFly: Indeed. And maybe several other languages that are common in Leicester?
DeleteDo any substantial number of people in Northern Ireland even speak Irish at all? I thought it was pretty much only spoken in the western edges of the Republic.
ReplyDeleteInfidel: 71,900 people in NI can speak Irish (circa 4% of population) and 228,600 people (12.4%) have some knowledge of Irish. So it's very much a minority language up here, the total population of NI being about 1.9 million.
DeleteInteresting. That hadn't been my impression.
DeleteI shudder to think what it would be like in places like Los Angeles if the signage had to be in every language that 4% of the population can speak.
Perhaps the more relevant question is what percentage of Northern Ireland's population is not fluent in English? That is, how many people are actually inconvenienced by signs in English only? Is the demand for Irish signage just an assertion of identity as you say the opponents assert, or is there a practical need for it?
Infidel: The percentage of people not fluent in English would be significant though not that large. There are plenty of Poles, Bangladeshis, Chinese etc who may not be fluent in English. But there's no practical need for signs in Irish, it's just a political manoeuvre.
DeleteInteresting . . . is the Irish language promoted in schools?
ReplyDeleteBijoux: Irish language pre-schools and primary schools are now thriving and there are official Irish language streams in secondary schools in Maghera, Donaghmore, Castlewellan and Armagh.
DeleteI know several Irish speakers out of the North. If reunification is to happen this would be an important step.
ReplyDeleteXO
WWW
www: If there is ever a united Ireland, certainly learning Irish would be an advantage as Irish is so common in the Republic.
DeleteAs a native English speaker, of course, I don't need signage in any other language. But, Ireland is not my country. We just hurried out of Quebec, Canada, when we discovered how much signage we couldn't understand because it was in French.
ReplyDeleteLinda
Linda: I went to Quebec City many years ago but I don't remember it being so French. But it must have been because I see that 71.2 per cent of Quebecers are first language francophones and about 95 percent of Quebecers speak French.
DeleteQuebec has stringent policies to limit and discourage English and to harass even private businesses that use it. Any use of English in official contexts is of course completely off the table. It's probably the only place in the developed world that still uses such policies to actively suppress its main minority language. Personally I would never go there. They've made it plain enough they don't want me there.
DeleteInfidel: That all sounds very draconian. As you say, they're actively suppressing a minority language.
DeleteWe have them in wales
ReplyDeleteThey cost a fortune
Enough said
John: Yes, I can think of plenty of better ways of spending the money.
DeleteIf the public wants them, make them.
ReplyDeleteJoanne: Well, that's a simple solution!
DeleteLanguages are dying out all over. I think it's great to support lesser spoken languages, it has a flow on effect with culture and community.
ReplyDeleteKylie: I agree minority languages should be supported, but surely learning Irish at school is a more effective way of promoting the language than the odd Irish word on a road sign?
DeleteI think, as you say, it is a political issue. It is symbolic and encourages pride in being Irish. Are a majority of people in Northern Ireland of Scottish descent way back? I say that as someone whose Scots-Irish ancestors settled so much of the U.S.A. Consequently, I identify my heritage as originating in Scotland, not Ireland. I have a genuine interest in this issue.
ReplyDeleteColette: Yes, a lot of Northern Irelanders are of Scottish ancestry. Also about 10,000 Huguenots are thought to have come to Ireland in the late 17th century fleeing religious persecution in France. So their descendants are here too.
DeleteI would tend to agree that the use of bilingual signs is unnecessary from a cost perspective. However, I can also see the point of those who argue that it is preserving the language of the country and could indeed be a source of pride for that contingent.
ReplyDeleteBeatrice: As I said to Kylie, I think teaching Irish at school does a lot more to foster the use of Irish than the odd road sign with an Irish word on it.
DeleteA common language certainly aids in unity of people which is one reason to have a common language. However I don't see any reason to not promote learning another.
ReplyDeletePaula: The odd road sign with Irish words doesn't encourage me to learn Irish. But if I'd gone to a bilingual school I would have been fluent in Irish long ago. There should be a lot more bilingual schools.
DeleteMy Mom was Welsh and she was glad when North Wales began putting up their bilingual Signs to try to preserve what is a dying Language and a Culture that has been oppressed far too long. Mom has passed now, but she was Old enough to remember when she was beaten in School for speaking her own Language in her own Country because all of the Teachers were English. My Dad was Native American and the same thing happened here in the US with all of the Indigenous Tribal People. Colonialism was/is notorious for trying to eliminate Cultures and pretend to be Superior and Dehumanize anyone not just like them.
ReplyDeleteBohemian: I gather there are more Welsh speakers in Wales than Irish speakers here. Being beaten for speaking your own language is horrendous. True, colonialism does its best to destroy cultures it doesn't understand and impose its own blinkered outlook.
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