One year on and still no Irish language signage at Olympia Leisure Centre

In 2019 it was decided by Belfast City Council that Andersonstown, Olympia, Lisnasharragh and Templemore leisure centres were ‘shared spaces’ for all members of the community. Councillors also voted for the centres to have welcoming and directional signage in Irish as well as English.

Following a public consultation, more local input was ordered for Lisnasharragh and Templemore, but Olympia and Andersonstown got the signage go-ahead. The Andersonstown signage has been in place for some time, but none has gone up at Olympia – and no progress has been made on further consultation in relation to Lisnasharragh and Templemore.

The 2021 bilingual signage for Olympia decision was subject to a call-in by the DUP and went to Strategic Planning and Resources Committee where  the erection for bilingual signs at Olympia was confirmed.

Belfast City Council subsequently decided there would be an Equality Impact Assessment for Olympia in January 2022 and since then there has been no update, leaving the Irish language community frustrated at the lack of progress.

Paddy Ó Tiarnaigh of An Dream Dearg said: “It seems to have been caught up in political mechanisms and it’s well past overdue. Andersonstown Leisure Centre has already been completed and given Olympia’s location near facilities such as Coláiste Feirste and the Gaeltacht Quarter, and given Boucher Road being one of the big shared spaces in the city, we are overdue hearing what will be the next steps.

“It’s very frustrating. It’s indicative and representative of the broader Belfast City Council approach to these things where things get caught up and put on a shelf even after they go through a lengthy and probably quite expensive and extensive consultation process.

“There is political support and community support for this. Olympia wasn’t designated as a local leisure centre like Brook Leisure Centre, it was uniquely defined as one of the four city-wide shared spaces and designed to be used by everyone in the city. The consultation was for users right across Belfast and there was a lot of support across the city for bilingual signage at Olympia.”

Paddy’s colleague, Cuisle Mac Liam, said it shouldn’t be for the Irish language community to chase the Council over every Irish language issue and that there was frustration as to why signage which has already been agreed upon is repeatedly being subjected to delays.

“Olympia has been specifically designated as a shared space for everyone in Belfast," she said. "We’re due to meet the city solicitor on this and over other issues in the coming weeks. We have raised this issue with local councillors from all parties and have had promises it would be looked into but have received little response in regards to it.

“It shouldn’t be on us to have to chase up every single decision being made in regards to the Irish language. Shared spaces can’t be constituted as shared spaces if they exclude the Irish language and the Irish language community. It seems like these things are left in the hope that they will fall off the back of the truck and people will forget about them.”

Paddy added: “There is a massive contradiction in Belfast City Council saying they now need to go for local consultations after already designating these centres are shared spaces for everyone in the city. They are either city-wide services, or they are not and they have been funded to be city-wide as they have bespoke services such as spaces for people with autism and so on.”

A Belfast City Council spokesperson said: "Members of Council’s Strategic Policy and Resources Committee agreed in September 2021 that a report on linguistic accessibility at Lisnasharragh and Templemore Leisure Centres be submitted to a future meeting. Due to resource issues this report has been delayed, but it is due to be brought back to committee for consideration in the coming months.

“Following legal advice, members of Council’s Strategic Policy and Resources Committee agreed in January 2022 to proceed with an Equality Impact Assessment on the erection of bilingual external naming and internal directional signage at Olympia Leisure Centre. This independently commissioned report is expected to be presented to Committee for consideration later this year."