THE days of beating about the bush need to come to an end; it’s time that we were honest about unionism and the Irish language. And the fact is that none of the three main pro-union parties gives a hoot about the Irish language one way or the other. Not really.
If they could press a button and it would go away they most likely would, but it’s time to stop pretending that senior figures within the three parties are reflecting any real sense of upset or alienation among their electorate when they give off about the latest cúpla focal; or that they themselves find their lives made more difficult or less comfortable by Irish signs on a leisure centre or on a bus stop. They aren’t and they don’t.
The simple truth is that the Irish language and its permanent place in public spaces is the single most visible sign of the changing face of these six counties and the failure of political unionism to maintain the grotesque pretence that everything would have been and might still be fine and dandy if it weren’t for civil rights and sundry rebels. When the DUP, the UUP and the TUV go off on another rant about the language, it is not because the language has been ‘weaponised’; it is not because somebody once said something about Irish and bullets and struggle and freedom (a somebody whose identity oddly remains a mystery after all these years). Rather it is because Irish language signage is a constantly visible reminder of the work that unionism is going to have to do to maintain the link with the UK. And it is a constantly visible reminder of their refusal and/or inability to do that work because it involves a root and branch reassessment of their historical entitlement.
It’s much easier for senior unionists to dole out, in the style of Roman emperors, the ‘bread and circuses’ of overwrought dramas over flags, marches and words to their people than it is to give them anything real or substantive that might improve their lot; or, yes, even strengthen the union in any meaningful way.
The battle with their own fear of change is just one part of the struggle in which unionism is currently engaged. The other part is the intra-unionist battle for votes. Gavin Robinson’s embarrassing attempt this week to escalate the Grand Central Station Irish signage story from a row to another existential threat to Stormont was a skirmish in that conflict. His promise to “put down a marker” over the station signs was primarily designed to convince DUP voters looking over the fence at the TUV that he hasn’t gone weak and woke. His priority is not to halt the advance of the ‘weaponised’ Irish language – his priority is to stop Jim Allister becoming Nigel Farage to his Kemi Badenoch.
Almost immediately Mr Robinson realised he’d overplayed his hand and he was forced to turn down the thermostat by assuring us that the station signage is not a “crisis”, but a simply matter of “bad process”. Doubtless he’s had a word in his ear – a word which sounds the same in any language.
