Residents of two Omagh roads don’t want new Irish street signs

Residents of two areas in Omagh have rejected the proposed erection of Irish language signs on their roads.

People living on nine roads in and around the town were contacted recently by Fermanagh and Omagh District Council after applications were made to have dual language signs erected on their streets.

Such applications can be made by a resident of an area, a local councillor or a property developer.

For the signs to be erected, at least 15% of residents living in the area who respond to a subsequent council survey must be in support of the new signs.

While this threshold was met for seven of the roads put forward in the new applications, the response from residents in the other two areas did not meet the 15% threshold.

The council has now recommended erecting the new Irish language signs on the seven roads, at a total cost of £25,500.

The roads where the new proposed signs will be erected are: Dunbreen View Road; Carnony Road; Gortnagarn Road; Rylagh Road; Tattynure Road; Corran Road and Erganagh Road.

The two roads where not enough residents were in support of the proposed Irish language signs were Dunmullan Road and Carrigans Park Road.

A report on the latest dual language sign applications is due to be discussed at a meeting tomorrow evening of the council’s Environmental Services committee.

The report states the council approved a budget of £150,000 in February 2024 for the 2024/25 financial year for the installation of dual language signage.

This budget also covers the cost of replacement of damaged signs.

In December last year, the BBC revealed the Fermanagh and Omagh District Council area has seen a large number of vandalism attacks on Irish language signs over the past five years.

There have been a total of 300 attacks on such signs recorded across the North since 2020.

Irish language and bilingual street signs in Northern Ireland have been vandalised more than 300 times in the past five years.

A total of 209 of the attacks were in the Mid Ulster District Council area, with 74 vandalism incidents in the Fermanagh and Omagh District Council region.

There were 23 attacks in the Belfast City Council area, with 15 in the Newry, Mourne and Down District Council area and four recorded in Derry City and Strabane District Council.

The North’s other six councils said they either have no dual language street signs or no record of any incidents.

According to the BBC report, the cost of repairing the damaged street signs over the last five years was almost £60,000.