WITH tiresome inevitability it’s been announced that dual-language signage is to be erected at the new Grand Central Station.
Sinn Féin Infrastructure Minister Liz Kimmins announced this week that the signage would go up “later this year”. While the announcement was welcome, it has to be remembered that Sinn Féin’s John O’Dowd held the Infrastructure portfolio when the station opened to great fanfare last September – without a word of Irish to be seen.
Why the issue wasn’t done and dusted long before the first buses and trains departed is still not clear – but it’s a mistake that no party claiming to be a champion of the Irish language should make in the future when it comes to large-scale infrastructure projects. The cost of the new signs is estimated at £150k – a sum that would have been much smaller if Irish had been part of the original vision.
Once again, huge thanks are due to the campaigning Irish language group An Dream Dearg, whose energetic and effective campaigning has been a huge boost to the teanga – and whose prompt and effective protest after the September opening brought the issue of dual-language signage at the new station to the fore.
Like a Japanese soldier emerging from the jungle twenty years after the end of World War Two, the hardline unionists of the TUV have launched a bid to stop the erection of Irish language signage – a move that is as much a waste of energy and breath as it is of money and resources. While a court victory would be a huge boost for the TUV and would be the signal for much waving of flags and cheering in North Antrim and other staunch TUV heartlands, that slim prospect is not the reason that the party has launched the legal challenge.
The very act of opposing Irish language and culture at every turn ensures their status as the ultimate defenders of loyal Ulster is copperfastened; their ultimate – and almost inevitable – court loss, meanwhile, will bolster their narrative of republicans getting everything and unionists getting nothing.
Not to be outdone, the DUP bemoaned the fact that money is to be spent on signage that would be better spent on “fixing our roads and improving infrastructure for anyone”. We don’t know what size or length of road could be built, or how many thousands of potholes could be filled in, with 150k. And we’re pretty sure that the DUP is equally doubtful about the difference the Grand Central Station sign money would make to our roads network.
We do know, however, that the use of Irish on electronic notice boards will cost next to nothing and will – like the wall signs – add richness to the travel experience of station users, and tourists in particular.
Will there come a time when unionism realises that there’s hugely more political advantage to be had from a managed acceptance of the place of Irish in our society? Or is constant conflict an unbeatable addiction. Sadly, the smart money would be on the latter.
