No more ‘unlucky’ 13 for new homeowners

NEW homeowners in the Omagh area won’t have to worry anymore about living in a house with a number reckoned to be unlucky for some… or those that use the infamous ‘Number of the Beast’!

For, in a new policy document, Fermanagh and Omagh District Council are banning the use of the much-maligned numbers, 13 and 666. Both, of course, have traditionally been frowned upon.

But this does not mean that the two numbers won’t exist on any buildings across the area, as the council has acknowledged that they may have been used historically. The policy was drafted in the summer and discussed at a meeting of the Council’s Environmental Services committee last week. It also covers the potentially thorny issue of Dual Language Street signage, and some of the 152 responses to a consultation on the document expressed opposition to the use of other languages for street names or developments. One response was especially forthright.

“We do not want to use Irish street names in our towns and villages here in Northern Ireland. We are part of the United Kingdom,” they said.

Other respondents objected to a proposal which would allow councillors to request a street sign in a language other than English, with one describing it as “totally unfair”.

Significant concerns were also raised about the potential of graffiti and the defacement of the dual-language signs.

However, the council said that any incidents of defacement would be dealt with as part of the maintenance routines. They have also stressed that the policy does not just focus on the Irish language, but on all minority languages.