A new campaign to make Irish one of the official languages of the North has been welcomed by SDLP councillor Mark H Durkan.
The move was launched at Stormont when SDLP MLA Dominic Bradley tabled a private members’ bill to have English and Irish formally recognised as the official languages of the North.
Welcoming the plan, Colr Durkan said the experience of Wales and S
cotland show that language legislation can be enacted without controversary.
“The SDLP have been working on this bill for several months in response to the statement by former DCAL Minister Edwin Poots that his department would not bring forward an Irish language bill to meet the commitment made at St Andrews. Contention around these issues is generally based on misunderstanding and experience from Scotland and Wales shows that this contention quickly dissipates once legislation is in place. The SDLP will now be seeking support from other parties in the Assembly with a view to putting it before MLAs in the New Year,” he said.
Colr. Durkan also said an Irish Language Act would “depoliticise” the language debate.
“The real benefit to be won from establishing language rights in legislation lies in depoliticisation. This bill establishes two official languages, Irish and English, so it is very clearly a threat to no one. It is designed to meet the needs of nearly 170,000 people who know or use Irish and they belong to all political parties and none,” he said.
