Dozens of protesters have staged a demonstration against proposed Irish language signs at Belfast’s Grand Central Station.
Crowds gathered on Monday evening in response to Stormont Infrastructure minister Liz Kimmins’ announcement last month that signs in both English and Irish will appear at the transport hub in the city centre.
Irish language campaigners staged a protest at the station shortly after the opening of the new £340m station late last year, with demonstrators claiming members of Belfast’s Gaeltacht community felt “excluded” from the hub due to a lack of Gaelic signage.
Mark who helped organise the rally criticised the decision saying the minister is new to the position and has not engaged with residents.
“This was a decision made by a minister who’s been in post for only a short time, and she’s not attempting to reach out to the community.
“This area has been economically gutted and culturally attacked by imposing a language on which people here don’t speak.
“My grandmother was a fluent Irish language speaker. I don’t have a problem with people having a personal love for their Irish language. My difficulty is whenever it’s coerced speech on signage, which isn’t needed.
“There’s £200,000 offered to shopkeepers in this area for the damage that has been done by TransLink and almost the equivalent is going to be spent on Irish language scenes. It could be better used.”
Trader Paul McCann told The Irish News that it was “not right” that traders received £200,000 while Irish language signage would cost £150,000.
“We’re not in Ireland, we’re in Ulster. It’s not our language. It’s not our native language, either. You know, it’s a Gaelic language from a foreign country.
“Traders received £200,000 to help with the impact on business during the building works but I’ve still bills to pay. Then we’re told £150,000 is going into these Irish language signs. It’s a kick up the backside.”
William Dickson, of the Blackstaff Residents Association, referenced a quote that “every word of Irish spoken is like another bullet being fired in the struggle for Irish freedom.”
He claimed: “There are two entrances to this station; one here in Sandy Row and another at the Grosvenor Road, which had a rich protestant history before the ethnic cleansing in the 1970s, which is never publicly spoken about.
“Promoting the Irish language is seen as rewarding the republican people for the ethnic cleansing and extending republican territory.
“We wish to see a station that everyone can feel welcome in. We need a careful and sensitive approach to any proposal around the installation of Irish language signs at the site.
“We are here tonight calling upon our MLAs to stop Liz Kimmins’ solo run of forcing the Irish language signs in and around the station.
“We do not fear the Irish language, but we do not want it rammed down our throats either.”
The new signage, estimated at £150,000, was expected to appear at the hub later this year, but work has halted after a legal challenge.
by Kitchen-Valuable714
31 comments
Why are people so intimidated by a language that has been knocking around here much longer than before any of us were swimming about in ball sacks 😭
Some mental gymnastics there.
Translink fucked up here and should have had dual language signs from the start.
The new station is not the property of Sandy Row.
Perhaps they should consider not shitting on their area every 12th July and getting the clean up costs invested in their area?
All I’m going to say is that if these people were as confident and secure in their own identity as they let on, they wouldn’t feel the need to do shite like this.
A lot to unpack here. None more so than the sheer lack of self awareness of the McCann gentleman (does he not realise where his surname originates from?)
Then there’s the ethnic cleansing that took place on the Grosvenor Road, with the stretch immediately outside GCS a hotbed of Irish Republicanism with its PSNI station, high rise car park and commercial units.
What a bunch of mouth breathers
One side of the country so bitter and terrified they’re out at it again.
Loyalists when will you ever see your “leaders” fucking hate you. They want you poor, angry and disillusioned just so they can have an excuse to stop texting 15 year olds and act important.
They hold no sway, let them shout and then they can fuck off either in a police car or on their own.
https://preview.redd.it/j4mtarv1byue1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=226f96d0cdd4057810f3610a0d1f0c22609344e4
‘We are not in Ireland we are in Ulster’. Why do loyalists think Ulster is an NI term. Do they not realise how stupid this is
Well that was more column inches than “dozens” of protesters aka hardline not a taig round here and Loyalist terrorist sympathisers deserve.
The cost of Grand Central is around £340M, it has a projected cost over run of around £45M.
And these knuckle draggers are busting chops over £150k signage.
Where’s the great lauded leaders of Unionism on this? Where’s the MLAs with them? Abandoned again. Instead you have the world’s first mouse penis transplant recipient on saying he opposes it because of his hatred of all things Irish.
“We’re not in Ireland, we’re in Ulster. It’s not our language. It’s not our native language, either. You know, it’s a Gaelic language from a foreign country” -Where do you even start with that statement?
I almost feel sorry for them and their pathetic lives.
Theres Dozens of them…. DOZENS!
These people are bonkers. You’d think they’d just been told that they were getting Irish signage in lieu of English. It will never cease to amaze me how some people here can manage to take offence from something that is likely to have zero impact on their lives.
One thing that has confused me about all this is the constant reference to Sandy Row. The station isn’t in Sandy Row. It might back out onto it, but it’s not _in_ Sandy Row.
Its address is listed as Grosvenor Road. At the other end of that road is a Sticky club with a commemoration to members of the “Official Republican Movement” on its grounds. Can they claim ownership of it based on that?
Absolute nonsense. I’d respect those opposed to this if they were honest and said they don’t like anything Irish and that’s their opposition. This scrambling for excuses is more offensive than the truth.
“Coerced speech on signage” is there a fucking gas leak in Sandy Row. Honestly all that’s going on in your area and this is the hill you choose to die on.
How about we gut out all the English signage in Benidorm, Tenerife and all those other Spanish holiday destinations they love so much. Better yet let’s have them only speak in Spanish as well.
I’s Spain not Ulster after all.
Jesus would they ever take a day off for themselves
Their reasoning for their opposition to this is hilarious. If people were trying to get Irish language signs in Sandy Row, then fair enough have your protest. But grand central station doesn’t belong to Sandy Row and doesn’t belong to unionists. It’s a shared space for everyone and so there should be signs in Irish. I can’t believe it’s even an argument here. We want tourists coming here, but how embarrassing is it we can’t even have signs welcoming them to Belfast in Irish without these gammons losing their minds over it.
Meanwhile the clean up after bonfires alone costs The councils/government roughly £800,000 in a 3 year period. Plus whatever costs The housing executives have to pay to protect any housing close to them.
Sad that they don’t have anything better to do with their lives, hateful bastard’s
They just won’t let it go will they. Tards.
Surfing on the right side of history again 👀
What gets to them is the fact nobody can get in and deface them as the signs along roads regularly are
Sure if it wasn’t Irish language signage in the station they’d soon find something else to be upset about
Why do sandy row residents feel responsible for a train station. First the bridge now the station, they look like the world’s worst choir ffs
So many gems in that article, fuck em. Choke on the signs!!
As a Protestant I think having the signs in Irish as well as English is good and beneficial. It doesn’t erase any “identity “ intact in helps to enhance it. These idiots seem to forget the Irish language was helped to reintroduced in the north by an Orangeman. Irish language is nothing to be ashamed of. Ulster men, northern Irish British, however you want to say it, the Irish language doesn’t take anything away from that. It was the native language of the country in the first place. It’s not going to take away their ability to speak English or their “Britishness”
Like really, who the fuck is a bit of signage harming? Hinest to fuck these dickheads have *nothing* going on in their lives *NOTHING!!!*
Laughing at the turn out and the demographic. A single young fella among them and he looks like he was dragged outta bed by his da.
These people will be passed by.
Ulster as in one of the provinces of ….Ireland?
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