Belfast street sign at centre of the city’s latest Irish language row has word 'loyalist' plastered over it

A north Belfast street sign at the centre of the city’s latest Irish language row has had the word ‘loyalist’ plastered over it.

The Donegall Park Avenue signpost has been replaced with a ‘Loyalist Donegall Park Avenue’ sign. The move comes in the wake of a row at City Hall over plans to erect dual Irish and English street signs along the road.

Belfast City Council‘s full meeting last week saw a narrow vote to pass the introduction of dual language signs at the street.

The local authority has a 15% threshold of residents to proceed with planned Irish language signage. In the survey for Donegall Park Avenue 74 occupiers, that is 36.1 percent, were in favour a second street name plate, 53 occupiers, or 25.85 percent, were not in favour and over a third of the street did not reply.

At the full monthly meeting of the council last Wednesday, a committee decision to place Irish/English street signs only at nationalist parts of Donegall Park Avenue and Oldpark Road was reversed.

Last month the council’s People and Communities Committee made decisions on so-called ‘long roads’ on whether they should receive dual language signage along the full lengths of those streets, or at sections where it would be deemed “appropriate”, that is a nationalist section of the street.

Donegall Park Avenue, from the Antrim Road to the Castle Gardens junction, is considered a nationalist area, while Castle Gardens to the Shore Road would be considered a unionist area.

Sinn Féin argued introducing the signs to the entire street “creates the opportunity for greater cultural linguistic diversity, and for people to engage with other languages and other cultures”.

Unionists on the council rejected the claims, with the DUP saying it would “damage community relations”, while TUV representative Ron McDowell said when the new Irish signs were installed they would be “vandalised” and “cut down”.