https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cj415n711jzo
Stormont's communities minister has said the Irish language has been used by some as a "weapon of cultural dominance" as he defended his approach to developing a language strategy.
Gordon Lyons clashed with members of a Northern Ireland Assembly scrutiny committee over delays in bringing forward the plan.
Sinn Féin's Colm Gildernew, chair of the committee, accused Lyons of "setting your face against bringing forward an Irish language strategy".
However the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) minister dismissed the accusation, saying that "work is continuing" with input being sought from various Stormont departments.
"I do not object whatsoever to anyone learning a language or speaking a language or celebrating the Irish language," he told the committee.
"What I want to make sure is that what we do is proportional, what we do is affordable, and what we do is not seen as an imposition on other people."
He said the development of an Irish language strategy has "gone through the exact same process" as others being developed including for Ulster Scots.
Speaking at the communities committee on Thursday, the minister said he would be "making sure that what we bring forward is fair".
He argued that "we don't have fairness in terms of language right now", citing concerns over Belfast City Council's policy on bilingual street signage.
It involves a proposal for a street being considered by a council committee if 15% or more of all occupants surveyed express support.
"I don't think we have taken the right approach," Lyons said.
"Look at what Belfast City Council have done in particular where the majority can be cast aside."
Gildernew said he was "extremely concerned" by the minister's comments.
"I'm extremely worried now minister what you're really doing is setting your face against bringing forward an Irish language strategy," he said.
Sinn Féín assembly member Colm Gildernew, chair of the communities committee
Image caption,
Sinn Féín assembly member Colm Gildernew, chair of the communities committee
Lyons replied: "No, I think that's what you want it to appear like so that you can use it to attack me."
He said that some people have used the Irish language "to impose on others" and "as a weapon of cultural dominance".
"So you can understand why some people are a little bit sceptical about some of the approaches that have been taken," he added.
Lyons said developing the Irish language strategy "has now been made more complex" due to a judicial review being pursued by campaigners.
But he said "in the meantime, the work is continuing within the departments".
'No weapon for anybody'
Alliance Party assembly member Sian Mulholland told the minister she educates her children in Irish, describing the language as "exceptional and beautiful".
She said it helped her children's literacy skills and cognitive development.
"I'm not someone who looks at cultural dominance, however, I see the value of that without it being political," she said.
"My children singing, 'Baa, Baa, Caora Dubh' – 'Baa, Baa, Black Sheep' – is no weapon for anybody."
Alliance MLA Sian Mulholland speaking at a Stormont committee
Image caption,
Alliance MLA Sian Mulholland speaking at a Stormont committee
Mulholland said that "the weaponisation has happened for me on both sides".
"And I think that has to be addressed as well and that has to be acknowledged," she added.
Lyons responded: "By the way, I don't believe it should be politicised. I wish it didn't have the connotations that it did either."
by YourDasSidePiece
34 comments
will every language they dont speak be weaponized as i have an arsenal as a polyglot?
Our car windscreens will convert signs to our personal language anyway in a few years.
Equality = Cultural Dominance.
Man who attends orange order marches calls language equality cultural dominance. How anyone falls for this shit is beyond me
Mental Gordos still in a job at all after he caused that Leisure centre to be burnt down
Edit – spelling lol
I’m a big fan of the freedom of choice, and if people want another language then why not? The DUP really don’t get the “Democratic” part in their name huh
I wish they were a dying party, but no doubt they’ll keep winning elections….
No harm also but the DfC lit sent 900k to bands fucking 2 days ago but no cunts talm bout it the 12th being a weapon of cultural dominance
“Idiot bigot says something stupid, more to follow”.
They’ve weaponised it through their constant attacks on it.
They’re fully grown men scared of a language.
Lyons is a race hate organiser who needs to shave his bigoted bald skull.
Gordon Lyons by the way, who yesterday celebrated the not guilty verdict of a man who used actual weapons to murder innocents
Considering the DUP have weaponised English, and what passes for loyalist culture, since day one it’s no surprise that they always assume everyone else is doing what they do.
It’s the same way the fuckwit Trump supporters in America think everyone else is willing to sell themselves down the river if it means they can spite the people they don’t like considering that’s what Trump fans do all the time.
Ultimately though the DUP know that they can’t turn back the tide and are getting increasingly petty and stroppy over it. The way to handle it is to just nod, act like you’re listening to their nonsense like you’d listen to an actual grown up and then just keep going with the work to turn NI into a regular place and diminish their grip on it as much as possible.
“If my mother tongue is shaking the foundations of your state, it probably means that you built your state on my land”
“work is continuing” – DUP
Translation: The frothing loyalist gammons are riding me raw to make this go away.
“What I want to make sure is that what we do … is affordable” – DUP
Ye just got £800k for flutes. Objectively, this money will only benefit a small part of one side of the community. Value for money is clearly at the top of your agenda. How much does Orangefest bring in? How much does it cost to police and clean up? Compare this with how much the arts contribute, Belfast is a UNESCO City of Music, this isn’t because of how hard a Lambeg is battered, and yet these are the people prioritised. How much money will the Fleadh make for Belfast? March every day where you’re wanted, genuinely happy for you, but don’t co-opt funds which could be used in virtually any other way to provide vastly more good for everyone.
If Lyons can’t be a minister for both communities then it’s time he either steps down or is forced out.
He is obviously unfit for the role and thinks he can do and say what he wants.
The DUP must think they’re temporarily back in the 1950’s – soldiers being acquitted of murder to raucous celebrations, British strategists talking about the “strategic threat” a United Ireland would pose to British security, etc etc. Might as well throw in a few bigoted jibes about the Irish language as well while they’re at it.
Loyalists blind ethnic hatred of Catholics/Nationalists and the glee they take in asserting “supremacy” really is perplexing. Despite the fact that Nationalists have suffered magnitudes more at the hands of Loyalists than vice versa, the same type of blood-based, vitriolic hatred for them simply doesn’t exist in the Nationalist community. I think it boils down to the fact that even if we disagree with them and feel aggrieved by the things they have done, when it comes down to it we still fundamentally view them as humans. For far too many Loyalists, their hatred is enabled by the fact they just don’t view us as equal, we are “less than” and therefore deserve no human decency.
Why can’t we be like the rest of the uk, since we’re in the UK and follow Scotland and Wales path on duel language because we re in the UK.
The Irish language was weaponised when it was beat out of the mouths of the Irish. Not this century or last either and with the hedge row schools it was preserved.
Why is it only in Northern Ireland that there is a problem with the native language?
Why isn’t this the case in Scotland and Wales? I thought it was a United Kingdom?
What’s the common denominator here, I wonder?
Unionists, want to be equal in the union until that means the taigs actually get some rights for a change
Irish was here long before any plantations and will here long after we’re dead and gone. Absolute piss take the Irish community still has to deal with this on our own island…
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The only party politicising and weaponising the language is the DUP but sure they have to appeal to their ancient voters, as the youth aren’t driven by fear voting
With Unionists it’s Irish Language. With Nationalists it’s bonfires,flags and parades. I wish both of them would put their energy into something constructive. How long has this shit show to go on?!!
It’s genuinely depressing how a beautiful language gets twisted into a political football by all sides. The focus should be on its cultural value and the practical benefits of bilingualism, not these endless battles. When you frame a request for basic recognition as an “imposition,” you’re the one creating the conflict. We deserve leaders who build bridges over this stuff, not ones who keep digging the same old trenches.
If our indigenous language sounds “weaponised” to you, it’s probably because you’re afraid your suppression of it will come to light🤔
“The majority” not anymore 😂
Have we ever had an example of this weaponising? Any testimony from someone denied a chance at living a decent life because someone else wanted to speak Irish?
The DUP are the main weaponisers of the Irish Language
And they are using that weapon to continually shoot themselves in the foot.
As someone from a unionist background it’s incredibly frustrating how much time is wasted on this, it’s very simple, in public places like Grand Central signage should be dual, for street names it should be dual IF the residents want it.
It is not the Ulster dialect of goidelic itself that seems to be the problem..
it is the sort of people who orbit around it like moths around a flickering grievance flame who seem to alienate more than endear..
You know the type.. eternally sour, perpetually aggrieved, more likely to bark “Tiocfaidh ár lá!” than utter a single sentence of actual Ulster dialect goidelic. They cannot speak a word of it, but by God they’ll make sure you feel like the outlier for not pretending to.
So aggressive has this cultural enforcement become that even uptake surveys have been, shall we say, massaged.
According to the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) Census 2021 data, 12.4 percent of the population claimed some ability in Irish (about 228,600 people), while only 0.32 percent (5,969 people) said it was their main home language. ([NISRA Census 2021 – Language Tables](https://www.nisra.gov.uk/publications/census-2021-main-statistics-language-tables?)).
Yet the narrative pushed by campaign groups, often with overt political strings attached, insists the language is on the verge of a mass revival. It is not. Outside a handful of passionate households and activist circles, daily speakers remain vanishingly rare.
The push to plaster bilingual signage across towns that never asked for it has backfired. In areas where support barely scrapes double digits, locals feel that cultural identity is being done to them, not shared with them. Language should unite, but in Northern Ireland it has too often been used as a badge of tribal belonging — another proxy battlefield in a conflict that was supposed to have ended a quarter of a century ago.
Scholars have long noted how the Irish language has been entwined with politics and identity rather than communication. ([Études Irlandaises Journal](https://journals.openedition.org/etudesirlandaises/3585?)). This history makes today’s “language rights” movement feel less like cultural revivalism and more like political theatre.
This is where sf needs to take a breath and quietly step away. Their fingerprints are all over the language issue, and it shows.
Each time they turn up to champion “the rights of Irish speakers”, half the population hears a dog-whistle of dominance, not celebration.
If certain political parties were serious about preserving the language rather than posturing with it, they would back the creation of an independent, non-partisan Irish-language body. One free of their partisan brand, which currently clings to the debate like graffiti on a protest cell wall. Give people the chance to learn Irish without feeling they’re endorsing a political tribe, and you might actually see genuine uptake.
Because the truth is, the Ulster dialect of goidelic is likely beautiful in its own way and deserves to live, to breathe, to be loved – not wielded like a weapon in a culture war.
Until the zealots stop treating it as such, a significant number will keep flinching when they hear it mentioned with a mixture of reticence and skepticism…
“Irish language has been weaponised” says one of the men weaponising the Irish language debate.
didnt DUP Gordon Lyons also set the larne loyalists on the legal immigrants in larne leisure centre?
This sub was very quiet about the Shankill bombing yesterday, or does it just matter when it’s one of their own?
The Irish language is simply that – a language. Seeing it or hearing it would not infect you with a sudden need to reject your heritage. Perhaps if PUL community tried once, just once, to develop a positive policy about something then their energies would be better used.
But no, because if anyone has weaponised the Irish Language it’s those in the PUL community.
How you can review the last few centuries of history and still be so vehemently against Irish people wanting a GAA club near them or Bi-lingual signage is mental to me
DUP again demonstrating what we have to endure under the status quo of the “union of equals”.
Irish language signs have been forced into neighborhoods where it didn’t even meet the threshold. Like it or not, it’s being politicized.
Great to see ELPs announcement about spending on Lambeth drugs and the inevitable Parachute Regime flag to balance this out
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