Protest planned to mark anniversary of Irish signage put up at Belfast leisure centre

Loyalist residents are planning a protest to mark one year since dual language signs with Irish were put up at a Belfast leisure centre.

Residents from the Village and Sandy Row areas of south Belfast are to gather on Friday evening at Olympia Leisure Centre on Boucher Road.

The signs were erected in October last year, following a vote in 2024 at Belfast City Council.

That vote followed years of wrangling over the bilingual signage plan, which began in 2021, when the council first approved the signs.

A ‘call-in’ procedure was triggered by DUP councillors, who said the signs would have a potentially negative impact on the nearby Village area.

This led to a successful legal challenge by Irish language group Conradh na Gaeilge, who won a landmark tribunal ruling against the council’s decision – backed up by the Information Commissioner’s Office – not to disclose to them legal correspondence relating to the call-in.

The group’s challenge led to the historic moment of Irish being spoken for the first time in Belfast’s Royal Courts of Justice in almost 300 years.

Meanwhile, a public consultation, carried out in 2023, found widespread support across the wider Belfast area for bilingual signs with Irish at the Olympia.

After the signage went up last October, a small protest was held at the leisure facility.

Organiser Billy Dickson, of the Blackstaff Residents Association, claimed “they are not part of our history”.

The same group has protested proposed Irish language signage at Belfast’s Grand Central Station.

Ahead of this week’s protest to mark a year since the signs went up, Mr Dickson said: “We are calling on Belfast City Council to revert to English-only signage, reflecting the wishes of the people who live, work and use this local facility.”

The centre is used by residents from right across Belfast.

“After 12 months, our position remains exactly the same,” he added.

“This is our community facility, and the signage should reflect what the local community wants. We are not against anyone — we are simply asking to be listened to.”

However, An Dream Dearg’s Cuisle Nic Liam, said the signage was a “beacon of a truly shared space”.

“English speakers were in no way disadvantaged by the promotion of Irish alongside English on public signage at Olympia,” she said.

“The English language was not diminished or marginalised in any manner. The sky didn’t fall in and no-one got lost on their way to the swimming pool or the toilets.”

She added: “The Irish speaking community, and local Irish medium schools who are registered users of the Olympia Leisure Centre, are finally reflected in what is a city-wide resource in a very shared space on the Boucher Road.”