<div dir="ltr"><h1>How the Irish language drove a wedge between Northern Ireland's Assembly</h1>
<h2 class="gmail-main_excerpt">A movement has begun to protest against decisions taken by the Assembly ‘against’ the Irish language.</h2>
<div class="gmail-infos gmail-border">
<div class="gmail-metadata">
<span class="gmail-date">9 hours ago</span>
<span class="gmail-views">
<span class="gmail-red-views gmail-icon gmail-iconViewVeryPopular"></span>14,008 Views </span>
<a href="http://www.thejournal.ie/northern-ireland-irish-language-3179468-Jan2017/#comments" title="Comment on How the Irish language drove a wedge between Northern Ireland's Assembly">
<span class="gmail-icon gmail-iconCommentVeryPopular"></span> 60 Comments </a>
</div>
<span class="gmail-share"><a href="http://www.facebook.com/dialog/feed?app_id=116141121768215&display=popup&link=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.thejournal.ie%2Fnorthern-ireland-irish-language-3179468-Jan2017%2F&picture=http%3A%2F%2Fc0.thejournal.ie%2Fmedia%2F2017%2F01%2Ffile-photo-sinn-feins-martin-mcguinness-is-to-resign-at-5pm-today-as-deputy-first-minister-of-the-northern-ireland-executive-his-resignation-is-in-protest-at-the-democratic-unionist-partys-handling-197x197.jpg&name=How+the+Irish+language+drove+a+wedge+between+Northern+Ireland%27s+Assembly&description=A+movement+has+begun+to+protest+against+decisions+taken+by+the+Assembly+%E2%80%98against%E2%80%99+the+Irish+language.&message=&redirect_uri=http%3A%2F%2Fthejournal.ie%2Futils%2Ffb_post.php%3Fp_id%3D3179468" target="_blank" title="Share on Facebook" class="gmail-open-window gmail-social"><span class="gmail-icon gmail-iconFacebook"></span> Share<span class="gmail-number">225</span></a> <a href="http://twitter.com/share?url=http%3A%2F%2Fjrnl.ie%2F3179468&text=How+the+Irish+language+drove+a+wedge+between+Northern+Ireland%27s+Assembly+%28via+%40thejournal_ie%29&related=@thejournal_ie" target="_blank" title="Tweet this" class="gmail-open-window gmail-social gmail-share-twitter gmail-twitter-tweet gmail-jrnl-tweet-3179468"><span class="gmail-icon gmail-iconTwitter"></span> Tweet</a> <a href="http://www.thejournal.ie/northern-ireland-irish-language-3179468-Jan2017/#EmailArticle" title="Email this article" class="gmail-social gmail-share-email gmail-lightboxTrigger"><span class="gmail-icon gmail-iconEmailSend"></span> Email<span class="gmail-number">1</span></a></span> </div>
<div class="gmail-photo">
<div class="gmail-img">
<img src="http://c0.thejournal.ie/media/2017/01/file-photo-sinn-feins-martin-mcguinness-is-to-resign-at-5pm-today-as-deputy-first-minister-of-the-northern-ireland-executive-his-resignation-is-in-protest-at-the-democratic-unionist-partys-handling-390x285.jpg" class="gmail-attachment-article_page_0" alt="" height="285" width="390"> </div>
<div class="gmail-source">Image: Sam Boal</div>
</div>
<span id="gmail-articleContent"><p>DEPUTY FIRST MINISTER Martin
McGuinness resigned on Monday after a month of political outrage over
the the renewable energy scheme scandal, which could cost the government
up to half a billion pounds.</p>
<p>Although there is a lot of talk around First Minister Arlene Foster
and the DUP’s ‘arrogance’ over their handling of the botched Renewable
Heating Incentive (RHI) – the role of the Irish language in Northern
Ireland has been becoming an equally tricky issue for Stormont’s two
‘powersharing’ political parties.</p>
<p>Máirtín Ó Muilleoir, Sinn Féin’s finance minister and former mayor of Belfast, said on Raidió na Gaeltachta’s <a href="http://www.rte.ie/radio1/podcast/podcast_cormacagacuig.xml">Cormac ag a Cúig</a> that McGuinness had been left with no alternative but to resign and that his patience had effectively ‘ran out’.</p>
<p>He said that it was because of the level of “disrespect and hate”,
they couldn’t stay in government with the DUP, and wouldn’t be returning
to the status quo after an election.</p>
<p>Political commentators have suggested that the party is under
pressure from its support base to stop compromising with the DUP on core
Sinn Féin issues – which led to poor nationalist turn-outs in the last
election.</p>
<p><span class="gmail-journal_embed_container"><span class="gmail-journal_caption_container"><span class="gmail-journal_caption_container"><img src="http://img2.thejournal.ie/inline/3179651/original/?width=630&version=3179651" alt="Renewable Heat Initiative allegations" class="gmail-alignnone gmail-inline-image"></span><span class="gmail-journal_credit">
Source: PA Wire/PA Images</span></span></span></p>
<p>Although Ó Muilleoir mentioned that Foster had been the ‘architect’
of the RHI scandal that has caused so much controversy, he added that
the second reason for the resignation was the DUP’s refusal to engage
with policies around the Irish language in the North.</p>
<p>Up until the latest Stormont Assembly with Arlene Foster and
McGuinness at the helm, discussions and policies around Irish language
policies had been stagnant at worst – with talk around the
implementation of an Irish Language Act ongoing (commitment to preserve,
develop and promote Irish is part of the Good Friday Agreement).</p>
<p>But recently DUP members had began to implement regressive policies
with regard to the Irish language: such as the new Agriculture Minister
renaming a boat from the Irish ‘Banraíon Uladh’ to ‘Queen of Ulster’ at a
cost of £302, according to <a href="http://tuairisc.ie/dorn-san-aer-do-na-gaeil-dornalaithe-oilimpeacha-ag-tacu-le-feachtas-nua-ar-son-na-gaeilge/">Tuairisc.ie</a>.</p>
<p>Last month, the Assembly’s Communities Minister Paul
Givan withdrew funding for the Líofa Irish language bursary fund, which
was worth about £50,000 per year.</p>
<p>According to the <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-38422550">BBC</a>,
an email was sent out on the night before Christmas Eve telling
employees “Because of efficiency savings, the department will not be
providing the Líofa bursary scheme in 2017. Happy Christmas and Happy
New Year.”</p>
<p>The fund allowed at least 100 students from disadvantaged areas to
attend a Gaeltacht in Co Donegal, and led Gerry Adams to call the
move ”an ignorant decision taken by an ignoramus”.</p>
<p>Funding for the expansion of five Irish language schools has been
refused by the DUP education minister, saying that ‘demands are being
met’ despite some schools seeing an increase in students enrolling.</p>
<p>Previous education minister John O’Dowd of Sinn Féin made moves to
refurbish and even open Irish language schools, which caused controversy
as it was said that there wasn’t sufficient demand to justify the move
when the department had to make cuts of £198 million.</p>
<p>When Peter Weir replaced O’Dowd as education minister in May 2016, he
said that there would be ‘no favouritism for Irish language schools’
and called O’Dowd’s promotions of the Irish language an ‘obsession’.</p>
<p><strong>An Dream Dearg</strong></p>
<p>In the wake of these series of moves against the Irish language –
arguably aiding An Ghaeilge by stoking up anger – a movement has begun
online of Northern Irish citizens who are enraged by what they see as
disrespect shown to the Irish language and Irish culture through policy
implementation.</p>
<p>Those who support the campaign have changed their profile picture on
Twitter to a red icon with a white circle. The protest is called ‘An
Dream Dearg’ (The Red Crowd) in an ode to protests in the Republic of
Ireland, which ran with the slogan ‘dearg le fearg’ or ‘red with anger’
over what was perceived as unsuitable appointments to government
departments dealing with the Irish language.</p>
<p>Some high-profile names have showed their support for ‘An Dream
Dearg’ including two boxing competitors from the Rio Olympic Games:
Paddy Barnes and Michael Conlan.</p><p><a href="http://www.thejournal.ie/northern-ireland-irish-language-3179468-Jan2017/">http://www.thejournal.ie/northern-ireland-irish-language-3179468-Jan2017/</a><br></p></span><br clear="all"><br>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature">**************************************<br>N.b.: Listing on the lgpolicy-list is merely intended as a service to its members<br>and implies neither approval, confirmation nor agreement by the owner or sponsor of the list as to the veracity of a message's contents. Members who disagree with a message are encouraged to post a rebuttal, and to write directly to the original sender of any offensive message. A copy of this may be forwarded to this list as well. (H. Schiffman, Moderator)<br><br>For more information about the lgpolicy-list, go to <a href="https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/" target="_blank">https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/</a><br>listinfo/lgpolicy-list<br>*******************************************</div>
</div>