The Irish Language Policy for Belfast has been approved by the city council. This outcome brings an end to a dispute that has lasted for eight months and paves the way for further advancement of Irish (Gaelic) in Belfast.
The policy for the Irish language was adopted by a majority of the council members in October 2025. Under this policy, the council will promote services in Irish, which will mainly consist of communications and signage. Furthermore, Irish will also be included on the signage of council buildings.
After these measures for the Irish language were adopted, pro-British parties lodged an objection to the implementation. The court therefore suspended the implementation of the language policy pending its decision. The Belfast court had rejected the challenge in April, stating that there was no problem with the council’s decision-making procedure.
Following this development, the council’s chairperson, John Walsh, approved the language policy document for Irish at the full council meeting on 1 June. This paves the way for the implementation of the language policy.
Key points of the language policy
The key measures of the Irish language policy are:
- Irish will be used more in all council services.
- Bilingual (English-Irish) signage will be provided for all council facilities.
- More opportunities will be provided for people who speak Irish to get involved in council activities.
- £9 million will be allocated to implement the language policy.
- Irish will become an official language of the council’s work.
The Irish is at risk
Ireland is a partitioned country which, alongside the Republic of Ireland, has a part known as Northern Ireland under British control. Northern Ireland is an autonomous region with a population of approximately 2 million. However, only 3.7% of the population in the region speak the Irish language.
On the other hand, Irish has been the official language of the independent Republic of Ireland since 1937, yet the language is also endangered in this country. Of Ireland’s 5 million population, around 50,000 people speak Irish. UNESCO classifies Irish as an endangered language due to this situation.
