Sinn Féin accuse DUP of ‘racism’ during Irish language row

Lord Mayor Tracy Kelly was forced to intervene twice to remind them they were not at a football match

A Sinn Féin councillor accused the DUP of racism during a row over the Irish language at a meeting of Belfast City Council on Monday night.

Councillors were debating the minutes of the Strategic Policy and Resources Committee, where members had been updated on the progress of a consultation on the council’s draft Irish Language Policy. The committee had agreed in principle to adopt a bilingual logo for Belfast City Council, with options to be brought back to the committee’s next meeting.

During Monday night’s full council meeting, DUP Cllr Sarah Bunting raised concerns that the platform being used to conduct the consultation could recieve and record responses from individuals without them having to prove that they are a resident or ratepayer in Belfast and that the full costings of the propsals had not been provided to councillors.

She proposed an amendment allowing the council to defer any decision on the policy until all information on how much it will cost is made available and that the proposals would go to consultation on a platform which would only be accessible to those who are residents or ratepayers in the Belfast City Council area.

In a heated exchange which followed, Cllr Ciaran Beattie pointed out that there were “no issues” with bilingual logos in other councils in Northern Ireland or in Stormont’s Department for Infrastructure and Department of Finance, which also have bilingual logos.

Cllr Beattie also described the DUP’s opposition to the Irish language as “racist” and questioned why the party do not like Irish.

“If you look across the water, or to the UK as [the DUP] would call it, you would see in Glasgow there is bilingual [logos] on all the uniforms, if you go to Cardiff and loads of other cities throughout the UK, they have Gaelic on their uniforms, but they don’t like it in Belfast. Why? Because it is Irish,” he declared.

Responding to Cllr Beattie, DUP Alderman Dean McCullough questioned how he could force a council worker in the likes of the Shankill to wear a uniform with Irish language on it and whether staff who refused to wear a uniform with a bilingual logo would be punished.

This, in turn, led to a heated exchange between Cllr Beattie and Ald McCullough, where Alderman McCullough asked Cllr Beattie to stand over his claims that DUP members were “racist”, with Lord Mayor Tracy Kelly intervening on two occasions. “We’re not at a football match, boys,” she said.

Alliance Councillor Jenna Maghie described the exchange as “unedifying”.

“I love it when I come in here of an evening, leaving time from my children, whose debating style I have seen echoed here tonight.

“She is two and she stands in front of me and she shouts ‘I want two biscuits’, expecting the answer to change from no.

“Coming here tonight, I have heard men shout across the chamber at each other about how they are representing the people that have sent them here, and it is unedifying.

“People have sent me here to make a point, and I am going to do it, but I am going to do it in a way that is respectful, in a way that listens to the points that you all made, and I think we would all make better points if we all tried to do that too,” she said.

Cllr Bunting’s amendment ultimately fell with 14 votes in favour and 40 against.

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