[https://www.newsletter.co.uk/news/politics/jim-allister-condemns-pandering-to-a-foreign-language-as-10-of-the-11-people-around-stormont-committee-table-don-translation-headphones-so-witnesses-can-speak-in-irish-4548396](https://www.newsletter.co.uk/news/politics/jim-allister-condemns-pandering-to-a-foreign-language-as-10-of-the-11-people-around-stormont-committee-table-don-translation-headphones-so-witnesses-can-speak-in-irish-4548396)
Ten out of the 11 people sitting round a Stormont committee table had to put on translation headphones so that witnesses could give their evidence in Irish this week.
Three members of Conradh na Gaeilge delivered their testimony to the Communities Committee in Irish for about 40 minutes on Thursday.
There were nine MLAs sitting around the committee table, plus two members of Assembly staff.
All except one of them – Sinn Fein MLA Maoliosa McHugh – could be seen donning official headphones as proceedings were translated into English (however, committee chairman Colm Gildernew of Sinn Fein did speak some Irish himself during proceedings).
Two individuals visible in the public gallery needed translation too.
TUV leader [**Jim Allister**](https://www.newsletter.co.uk/topic/jim-allister) described this as “pandering” to a “foreign language” at public expense.
In 2021, the Assembly had voted 58 to 27 to set up a live translation service so that MLAs and those giving evidence to committees could do so in Irish (and Ulster-Scots).
The [**DUP**](https://www.newsletter.co.uk/topic/dup) voted ‘no’ to doing so, despite having agreed to it in the 2020 New Decade, New Approach deal.
At the time, DUP MLAs Thomas Buchanan and Gary Middleton had said that the cost of the service would be about £500,000 per annum.
In 2022, a survey carried out by the Assembly itself found that only 10 out of the 90 MLAs wished to make “substantive contributions in Irish” (with none wishing to do so in Ulster-Scots).
Among the people who were especially outspoken against the translation service was Mr Allister, and on Friday he told the News Letter: “I’ve said from the outset: it’s just an unnecessary squander of money.
“There is nobody who appears before those committees, nor anyone sitting on those committees, who is not perfectly proficient in English.
“That doesn’t make any sense to me at a time when public finances are so tight. But that’s how things are in the Stormont world.
“You can thank the DUP for this, because they signed up to it.
“Indeed, this week we’ve had demonstrations from [**Paul Givan**](https://www.newsletter.co.uk/topic/paul-givan) \[the education minister\] and his mate the speaker \[Edwin Poots\], that they are now enthusiastic about embracing Irish.”
Asked if people should be compelled to speak in English, Mr Allister said: “I think that they should be required, as in the past, if they’re going to speak in a foreign language, to translate it themselves.
“The way it used to be in the Assembly was you could say what you liked in Irish but you then had to proceed to give the English translation – and that didn’t cost the public purse.
“That’s the way it should be still.”
The same day, Edwin Poots hosted an event at Stormont to mark Irish Language Week.
Speaking to BBC News NI afterwards, he was quoted as saying he did not think unionists had “anything to fear” from the Irish language, adding: “There may have been people who have politicised it at times, but I think the less politicisation there is of our culture, the better.”
Also on Thursday, the former DUP First Minister Paul Givan made similar remarks to Radio Ulster and said that maintaining the Union “is not going to be achieved through a very crude demographic headcount… therefore you have to win hearts and minds”.
by Seamus_Hean3y
42 comments
When men like Jim Allister continue to exist, there will always be support for the Republican cause
Allister’s parents were from Monaghan, so I guess he’s the child of immigrants then.
Stupid cunt
He’s just another tedious oul prick.
Jim Alister is always raging because he wasn’t loved as a child.
“look Mr Alistair I promise the Lundy’s can’t hurt you now we just need you to eat your mash potatoe”
-Jim’s home help in the probably very near future
I was confused. I thought English was the foreign language. And I was thinking “just don’t translate then, have everybody speak Irish.
He sabotages through his own extremist mentality the cause of unionism.
It’s mad that organised suppression and restriction of a language results in people not being able to speak it. How could anyone have predicted that would happen?
this cunt is an argument and a few fries away from a massive MI or a debilitating stroke.
just gotta’ wait him out
lol what a bloody waste of resources and services, this is like using sign language in your court appearance when you can perfectly speak english. performative
Jim Allister was born in Ireland. Irish is the native language of Ireland. Allister’s parents are from Monaghan.
Allister was a founding member of the DUP’S Ulster Resistance, a loyalist sectarian terrorist group responsible for hundreds of murders. Allister is an odious sectarian cunt.
Jim is also a regular contributor to the Stephen Nolan show on BBC Radio Ulster and BBC NI TV.
Jim Allister being the bigoted prick he is as usual.
“It’s a dead language, everyone speakes English now” yeah and how did that happen? By an occupying force requiring English at all times and beating the shit out of anyone speaking their native language, so you can see the significance of not doing that anymore Jim, you’re just a hateful shite.
Oh careful or the poor baby might throw a strop and collapse the assembly again!
Jim fucking Allister, continuing to be the predictable old bollocks
😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
God, Jim would really want to look up the kings English definition of the word foreign
And under his current logic, I wonder does he view his parents as foreigners?
Can’t teach an old bigot new tricks, sure nothing new there!
Imagine how stressful it must get spending every single day being completely raging about something.
Offended by everything, ashamed of nothing. Sunny Jimbo this perpetual state of outrage must be an awful strain on the body. Give it up, live your twilight years in peace and serenity.
From a purely practical point of view, let’s say everyone who chooses to speak Irish does then translate it themselves as JA suggests. We’re talking twice the amount of time for the hearings—do a costing and I’d bet that’s actually more expensive 🤷🏻♂️
Poor Jim, must be difficult when that foreign language is all around him.
‘The sweet smell of a great sorrow lies over the land
Plumes of smoke rise and merge into the leaden sky
A man lies and dreams of green fields and rivers
But awakes to a morning ~~with no reason for waking ,~~ to complain about Catholics. ‘
Bitter sectarian bigot shouts at clouds
Why is it, whenever Unionist leaders talk about saving money it is by adding or preventing something like the Irish language. Why won’t they call for the ending of 11th night bonfires and all marching?
Imagine the money that could be saved along with hassle and I’ll will.
Have a day off Jim
This happens in the Wales all the time when a member wants to address the the Assembly in Welsh. Headphones on.
Why is it that political unionism only ever finds expression through brain dead gobshites? Gusty Spence was a Gaeilgeoir and plenty of those who helped the revival of Irish were Protestant and no doubt unionist. There’s defending your political traditions and your citizenship status in what you feel is your country and there’s just talking absolute balls.
Fuck up ye bitter oul cunt. Imagine being scared of your own language
Cantankerous wee ballix.
Do it to a cop when they pull you over – priceless.
It’s pandering to the *native* language Jim, get it right
Fuck up Jim.
It’s a nice language but if there’s not more Gaeltachtai or regular speaking areas/hubs, the question should be asked, how does it have a future? A language act doesn’t go far enough, it’s a language meant to be spoken regularly and in communities. It’s very difficult to learn if you don’t speak it regularly.
Unless more is done to make it a serious language on this island, it will eventually seem like donning headphones to allow someone to speak in Latin or Ancient Greek. That’s the way it’s headed on current course.
What an ARSEHOLE
Of all the insanity that comes out of the unionist corner, saying that Irish is foreign to Ireland (north or south) really takes the cake
He’s terribly insecure
Jim Allister in ‘being an oul cunt’ shocker.
I mean what did ye expect from the news letter?
Jim Allister from County Monaghan shouts to the void that he’s not Irish.
The rest of the world laughs at him.
What Language did they speak in Ulster a thousand years ago? He’s a grifter. Makes a wage by shit stirring. Same as that Gobshite Nolan. The main reason why I’d never get a TV licence.
that cunts had his three score and ten