‘Good to see people on Irish Street don’t want Irish’ -DUP councillor

A DUP councillor in Dungannon has said he welcomes that there will be no Irish language signpost along the town’s Irish Street.

Cllr Clement Cuthbertson made the comments as he criticised the way Mid Ulster District Council’s dual language street sign surveys are deployed after another survey failed to return any responses.

During a recent meeting of council, Cllr Cuthbertson noted a request had been made for a dual language street sign to be erected in Irish Street in Dungannon.

A report provided to committee members for their information shows that on July 8 this year, the request for a dual language street sign for Irish Street was validated with the surveys issued to 22 residents of the street on August 31.

The deadline for returning the surveys indicating a preference either for or against the sign was September 28 but no responses were received by Council.

As such, in accordance with Council’s dual language signage nameplates policy, where more than 51 per-cent of the completed replies did not indicate they were in favour of the erection of a dual language street nameplate, Council will not be approving or erecting a dual language nameplate for Irish Street.

Noting the lack of responses, Cllr Cuthbertson branded the exercise a “waste of money, time and effort from Council officers”.

“I want to highlight again the fact another street survey has come back with no responses. This is another waste of money, time and effort from council officers,” said Cllr Cuthbertson.

“Also, Irish Street is in the town centre, it is not recognised as a residential area and should be treated differently.

“It is good to see the people on Irish Street don’t want Irish.”

The committee’s deputy chair, Councillor John McNamee, who was sitting in for the committee Chair, said, “We should look at doing town centres in a different way then. That is a conversation for another day but I take your point and it is a point well made.”

There have been a series of heated debates in the council chamber over the policy to introduce dual language signposts across the district.

At the start of the year, the council’s environment committee voted against a proposal to have dual language street sign applications until the policy has been reviewed.

There have also been a catalogue of attacks on Irish signs. Between June 2017 to the start of 2020, there had been 103 incidents of vandalism on dual language signs in the district, with the total cost to clean, repair or replace them standing at £13,194.

Loyalists in Moygashel even went so far as to target dog fouling signs in the area in which ‘Comhairle Ceantair Lár Uladh’ – the Irish language translation of Mid Ulster District Council – was removed.

By Adam Morton
and Michael McGlade