SDLP TO CHALLENGE IRISH LANGUAGE DECISION


Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit

source:gkennedy@iais.org

SDLP TO CHALLENGE IRISH LANGUAGE DECISION
09/26/97 12:02 EST

John Hume's Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) is 
launching a petition calling for a referendum on the return 
of bilingual Irish and English signs at Northern Ireland's 
main students' union.


Last month, student officers at Queen's University Belfast 
created a storm when they removed the Irish language signs 
because they believed the signs created a "chill factor" 
which disuaded Protestant students from entering the 
building. The campaign to have the signs replaced will be 
led by a member of the SDLP's talks team at Stormont Brid 
Rodgers.


She said: "We feel very strongly about this issue. Failure 
to include parity of esteem between our cultural traditions 
has been one of the most significant contributing factors to 
the conflict that we face." She said that for 50 years of 
unionist rule "not only was the official recognition of the 
Irish language absent, but there was in fact official
hostility to the Irish language. I am a native Irish 
speaker, many of the people in my party and in my
community speak Irish. Are they now to be asked to hide 
their language?"
 
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nytire-09.27.97-10:10:43-13832