Births, marriages and deaths registrations to remain in English and Irish only, with Ulster Scots excluded

A Stormont department has been advised it has an “obligation” to promote minority languages after it confirmed there were no plans to allow births to be registered in Ulster Scots.

The Department of Finance has responsibility for the General Register Office for Northern Ireland (GRONI), which since 2022 has allowed for the registration of births, marriages and deaths in Irish.

The accommodation for the Irish language to be used in registrations was part of the 2020 deal that restored power-sharing at Stormont following the collapse that led to a three-year hiatus.

However, in response to a recent written Assembly question by DUP MLA Diane Forsythe, finance minister John O’Dowd stated: “The New Decade New Approach (NDNA) document contained a commitment to ‘make any necessary statutory provision for births, marriages, and deaths to be registerable in Irish’

3rd party ad cIn a 2024 report, the European Charter for Regional and Minority Languages’ Committee of Experts’ reiterated the need for the “facilitation and/or encouragement of the use of Ulster Scots, in speech and writing, in public life (education, judicial authorities, administrative authorities and public services, media, cultural activities and facilities, economic and social life, transfrontier exchanges) and private life”.

The 2021 Census saw almost 21,000 in the north say they can speak, read and understand Ulster Scots, which many suggest is more a dialect than a language.

In comparison, the Census data shows that over 43,000 people report speaking Irish daily.

Speaking of the lack of plans to allow Ulster Scots registrations to take place, a spokesperson for the Ulster Scots Agency told the Irish News it “welcomes elected representatives seeking to advance the position of the Ulster-Scots language”.

“The Department of Finance, in common with all government departments in Northern Ireland, has an obligation under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages to take resolute action to promote Ulster-Scots,” they said.

“The Ulster-Scots Agency would be happy to engage with the Department in that regard.”

The Department of Finance was approached for comment.