Olympia Leisure Centre Irish language signs vote sparks vitriolic City Hall debate
There have been bitter exchanges between political parties at Belfast City Hall after a council committee approved bilingual Irish/English signage at Olympia Leisure Centre.
The long delayed plan to erect Irish signs at the council-owned leisure centre in a largely unionist-voting part of South Belfast reached its endgame on Friday morning, at the council’s important Strategic Policy and Resources Committee.
On a vote, 15 councillors voted in favour of Irish signage at Olympia, from Sinn Féin, Alliance, the SDLP and the Greens, while five DUP councillors voted against. A consultation report showed that in the wider Belfast area over 80 percent of respondents said they would be happy to see bilingual signage at the leisure centre, with 79 percent specifically in favour of Irish being used.
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The decision will go to the full council meeting next month for ratification. If the vote at the S,P&R Committee is reproduced by the same parties it will pass comfortably at full council.
During the committee debate an SDLP councillor claimed he was referred to with “Nazi” comments by a councillor from another party, while a DUP councillor moments later apologised for remarks made in what he described as a private conversation.
The leisure centre, off Boucher Road in South Belfast, is beside Windsor Park, the home ground for Linfield Football Club, and is close to Tate’s Avenue, beside the Village.
It has been five years since the original consultation was proposed into the erection of bilingual directional signage at the council’s four city-wide leisure centres at Andersonstown, Olympia, Lisnasharragh and Templemore.
Since then the Olympia matter has seen a decision in favour of Irish signage, a 'call-in' of this decision by the DUP, a return to committee level, a consultation on the “final decision” Equality Impact Assessment last year, with various legal delays along the way.
At the committee meeting on Friday Morning, City Solicitor Nora Largey said: “The consultation report really established that there were two very stark views in terms of the erection of signage at Olympia Leisure Centre.
“Those in favour of bilingual signage quoted international obligations, the importance of promotion of the Irish language, and (they said) there wouldn’t be any negative or adverse impacts because it is about rights and inclusivity. (They said) the use of the Irish language shouldn’t be seen as a threat to anybody.
“However, some of the local residents and others were concerned about the erection of bilingual signage. They felt it would cause alienation, and that it would damage community relations.
“Certainly there is a strong sense when you read those reports that the local community feel very much that it is their leisure centre. There is a paper in the consultation from Blackstaff Residents Association which lays out the history of the centre.”
DUP Councillor Sarah Bunting said: “We do feel the EQIA doesn’t show the good relations impact that would be had by putting the signage up at Olympia Leisure Centre. We need to take into account the issues that have taken place in the local area over the summer. There has been high tensions.”
She asked for a decision on signage at Olympia to be deferred until the current consultation for a draft Belfast Council Irish Language Policy was over.
Alliance Councillor Michael Long said: “I don’t think there is a massive divide. If you look at the figures, including Ulster Scots, over 83 percent who responded said they are in favour of the (bilingual) language signs.
“There are not many times you will get quite such an overwhelming result in terms of a single position. The people have pretty clearly presented what they want.”
He added: “It is also important to remember that in terms of our leisure programme, the decision was taken that we would have an East Belfast and a South Belfast leisure facility.
“This is not a leisure facility that is only for certain people that live around that community, it is for people that live in South and West Belfast. This is a facility that our council is running for all. This should have been done a long time ago.”
Sinn Féin Councillor Ciaran Beattie said: “The length of time this has taken is in itself a disadvantage to a section of our society. It is in breach of equality legislation in the way this has been handled - and that should be up for review after this decision is made.
“This EQIA was finished last November, and has been just delayed for what it is.”
SDLP Councillor Carl Whyte said the tone of the consultation report was “perfunctory.” He said: “Part of the problem of the debate around the Irish language minority is that it is almost seen in this place as a burden, and some kind of hassle, rather than the opportunity it is.” He said there was “institutional delay” affecting the final decision.
DUP Councillor Bradley Ferguson said: “Looking by chance at the last census, there are more people in this city and across this country that speak Polish, than speak Irish. There are nearly as many people who speak Romanian as speak Irish.
“People are right when they say all our leisure centres are for everybody, that’s what all our parks are for, all of the citizens of Belfast, and people visiting. Maybe a sensible approach would be that taken by Translink, where they have a welcome sign inside their new building which welcomes everybody in all languages.”
He added: “The Alliance Party come across as the great fence-sitters, and tell us how they represent everybody, and when it comes to decisions like this, they turn around, flick the two fingers at unionism and say get stuffed.”
Councillor Michael Long took issue with the latter statement under standing orders, calling it “offensive language” and asked for it to be retracted. Councillor Ferguson retracted the statement when asked by the Chair, Sinn Féin Councillor Ryan Murphy.
DUP Councillor Fred Cobain said: “This is one of the most divisive issues we have had in council in a long time. I know for some people who are involved in the Irish language it is about the Irish language, but in most cases this is about identity.”
He said: “For areas we represent people do have a genuine view that they don’t want Irish language street signs for instance. And I think it is entirely wrong that people who have that view are demonised as some sort of idiots. These people have a genuine view around this particular issue.” He said people who objected to Irish language signs were “seen as some sort of bigot.”
Councillor Long again raised a point of order, stating: “To say that anybody has described anything as being to do with bigotry is totally false.”
DUP Councillor Ian McLaughlin said: “We need to nail this myth about fear of the Irish language. There is actual hurt in my community in the use of the Irish language, primarily from victims of horrendous terrorism, whose only interaction with that language, whether people like it or not, was masked and hooded gunmen squealing at them in this language after murdering one of their loved ones.”
Sinn Féin Councillor Ronan McLaughlin brought a point of order to these remarks, stating: “You can’t demonise a language by saying that.”
SDLP Councillor Séamas de Faoite said: “This discussion has a risk of damaging good relations, and is sending out a very difficult message out to the rest of the city if we hear more of the contributions we have heard.”
He formally proposed moving to a vote, then moments later pointed to another councillor stating: “That has to be removed, that is a disgrace.”
The Chair said the accused councillor’s mic was not turned on and he “was not privy to what the councillor said.”
Councillor de Faoite said after the vote: “I made a proposal that we move on to a vote, and following on from that discussion at the end of this table, another councillor stated 'That’s what the Nazis did'.
“I think that is appalling language, and I would expect an apology is offered, and that (statement) withdrawn.”
Councillor Ian McLaughlin said: “I was having a private conversation with my colleague on something very different. If the member thinks I was talking about him, or something he said, well then I’m terribly sorry if I caused you offence. But I wasn’t speaking to you, nor was I speaking about you. Very sorry if you thought that I was. I hope that clarifies the matter.”
Belfast City Council carried out a consultation into the proposed erection of bilingual or multilingual external naming and internal directional signage at its four city wide leisure centres, Andersonstown, Olympia, Lisnasharragh and Templemore in 2019 and 2020.
In September 2021, a council committee passed a Sinn Fein proposal to erect bilingual external naming and internal directional signage at Olympia Leisure Centre by 12 members to six, with one abstention.
The Strategic Policy and Resources Committee also agreed that a report on linguistic accessibility at Lisnasharragh and Templemore Leisure Centres be submitted to a future meeting, and that a multilingual welcome sign be erected in the entrance/reception area of all leisure centres.
Then in January 2022 the decision was subjected to a successful 'call-in' tabled by the DUP, effectively stalling the decision for further review. Councillors were told the call-in was successful on the basis that officers believed an external report showed there was the potential for “adverse community impact”.
The DUP then called for the decision to be scrapped altogether, but were told it would have to return to committee level again for elected members to consider the next move, as the DUP proposal required the support of a qualified majority vote of 80 percent of the Members present and voting. Councillors at the S,P&R Committee again voted for dual signage at Olympia and the matter then was moved to a full equality impact assessment which started in June 2023.
This consultation resulted in a 101 page document final decision EQIA which is available for the public to read.
A council document states: “The consultation report gives an analysis of the statistical responses for each question and an analysis of some of the key themes in the commentary under each question. The consultation responses showed a strength of feeling both for and against the erection of bilingual signage.
“Much of the commentary opposing the erection of bilingual signage is based on the concept that it will cause alienation and damage community relations. Commentary in favour of the erection of the bilingual signage states that this is in line with the concept of rights and inclusivity, and is in keeping with international guidance on minority language issues.”
It adds: “The Draft Final Decision Report states with regard to equality of opportunity that prior to consultation, it was suggested that the proposal for bilingual signage may give rise to a potential adverse impact for those from a Protestant / Unionist / Loyalist ('PUL') background and that signage may discourage access or use of Olympia by those groups.
“The consultation confirmed that this perception did exist within PUL communities i.e. the proposal did have potential to alienate users from these communities, making it less likely that they would use the centre. However, the report further states 'At the same time it was also suggested during the consultation that the absence of bilingual signage may have an adverse impact on those from the Irish language community'."
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