Pól Deeds - the man aiming to take the antagonism out of language

The inclusion of Irish signage at Belfast’s Grand Central Station is a “no brainer”, according to the newly-appointed commissioner for the language.

Pól Deeds told The Irish News that rather than representing division, through what critics often claim is the marking of territory, dual language signage on public buildings instead “marks out shared space”.

Mr Deeds was speaking on his second day in the role as the north’s first ever Irish language commissioner.

He was appointed last month alongside a commissioner for Ulster Scots and the Ulster-British tradition, Lee Reynolds, and the director of the Office of Identity and Cultural Expression, Katy Radford.

The Irish language commissioner’s primary role, he says, is “to oversee and implement the law in terms of language”, as set out in the Identity and Language (Northern Ireland) Act 2022.

The west Belfast-born 47-year-old would have preferred if the legislation had been “standalone” and “rights based”, as recommended by committee of experts from the Council of Europe.

He also notes how the standards of best practice relating to the use of Irish by more than 100 public bodies that he is tasked with compiling are “rather unhelpfully” required to be approved by the first and deputy first ministers.

Another “weakness”, according to the commissioner, is a failure to match corresponding legislation elsewhere that deals with areas such as the administration of justice, the political sphere, education, and media and broadcasting.

This is why he believes the complementary Irish language strategy, currently being developed by the Department for Communities and earmarked for publication next year, is so important.

“The strategy is another key component, because hopefully it will deal with the areas that are missing from the act,” he says.

“These things should have been included in the legislation, as the experts would argue that they should be covered in law, but if it’s going to be in a strategy that’s properly resourced and that I can have a role in overseeing it, then that will be a significant.”

When the commissioner’s best practice standards are published and adopted, he is optimistic that by the end of his five-year tenure “there will be a different face to the public sector”.

“It will be more welcoming face to Irish speakers and users of public service who have Irish or come from the Irish language community,” he says.

While maintaining that the legislation is far from ideal, he argues that it includes “real genius” in that it creates a “peace role” for him and his counterparts.

“I see this legislation as completing part of the jigsaw of the Good Friday Agreement and I have to say it fills me with hope, because as well as being an Irish language campaigner, I’m somebody who grew up in Belfast,” he says.

“My parents were born in the 1940s and lived through the worst of the Troubles, so I have a deep desire to see the peace that we have here, which is quite turbulent, bedded down for the future, for my children and for their children.”

His “dual role”, as he sees it, involves promoting Irish but also working with Mr Reynolds and Ms Radford “to bring people together”.

“Finally enshrined in law is protection not only for progressive measures to support the Irish language and Ulster Scots but to protect the celebration of both our indigenous languages and all identities here,” he says.

“As well as being clever and necessary in order to complete the vision of the Good Friday Agreement, I think it couldn’t be more timely – if you look at what’s happening around Ireland and around Britain, we are now saying: ‘We are an open, welcoming society who will celebrate all of the cultures that make up the rich tapestry of who we are’.”

It may surprise some to learn that Mr Deeds is a strong supporter of Ulster Scots, stressing that it is a language, rather than a dialect, having been deemed such by the Council of Europe, which oversees the European charter for regional and minority languages.

“I’ve been on a journey with Ulster Scots myself, having once been one of the people years ago who ridiculed it, hooked on this conversation about whether or not it’s a language or a dialect, and that’s where it all goes awry,” he recalls.

“Having had the opportunity to work with the Ulster Scots Agency in my former role at Foras na Gaeilge, I realised that they don’t care – all they want is that people will enjoy and appreciate it, and just stop making fun of Ulster Scots.”

He now accepts fully that Ulster Scots is “part of my own heritage”.

“In fact, since taking an interest in it, I found that there’s a lot of Ulster Scots heritage in my own background, so I fully accept Ulster Scots as one of our indigenous minority languages that needs to be protected and should be protected.”

Visibility of the Irish language, so long either hidden or ghettoised, is “crucial”, according to Mr Deeds.

“Visibility is recognised in all the best practices as being one of the fundamental components of developing a minority language, so it should be seen across the public sphere, in neutral spaces,” he says.

This explains his support for Irish language signage at Belfast’s Grand Central Station, which he describes as a “no brainer”.

The decision to include the signage is currently the subject of a legal challenge, which has seen DUP Communities Minister Gordon Lyons granted permission to intervene in the proceedings on the ground that the decision was cross-cutting.

At a hearing in September, High Court judge Mr Justice McAlinden urged the Stormont executive to resolve the row without spending public money on a legal battle.

“Any project of that scale and importance should reflect the diversity of language communities in Northern Ireland – the importance of recognising minority languages through promoting their visibility is the cornerstone of best practice internationally,” says Mr Deeds.

“People say when they’re opposing it that it marks their territory, whereas the consensus internationally is that it does the very opposite: it recognises that an area is shared by people of different linguistic backgrounds.”

The commissioner believes he may be asked for his opinion by the judge and indicates that he’ll most likely tell it as he see it.

“When I had the opportunity to meet with the minister (Liz Kimmins), along with the Foras na Gaeilge chief executive in July this year, I commended her for making the decision that she made, and I would stick to that."

He wants members of the unionist community to appreciate and embrace the Irish language and see it as “theirs”.

“I want to dispel some of the myths around the Irish language and really help members of the PUL (Protestant, unionist, loyalist) community to understand that this is just another minority language of the UK,” he says.

“It’s an indigenous language of the UK; it’s a native language of Northern Ireland, and I know there’s a lot of people who won’t want to hear that, but that’s both the fact and the reality – and it’s now the law.”