Northern Ireland Irish language can be cherished by all Support for an Irish Language Act comes against the background of a renaissance in Irish speaking and interest in the language over the last 30 years, writes John Gray A man walks past an English/Irish street sign in west Belfast. The compromise proposals on languages accepted by Sinn Féin came from the moderate Alliance party, and involved both an Irish Language Act and an Ulster Scots Act. You repeat scare stories about the presumed content of any Irish Language Act, referring “to fears that Irish may be made compulsory in schools, that a language qualification might become a job requirement, and that street signs would be made bilingual”. Support for an Irish Language Act extends far beyond any Sinn Féin constituency, and comes from the SDLP and the Alliance party, and also embraces individual Unionists (albeit a small minority). Perhaps you could ask yourselves what rights should the Irish language have?

Source: The Guardian February 19, 2018 17:26 UTC