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Poll suggests attitudes towards Irish language act more entrenched after collapse of talks </h1>
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Attitudes amongst voters towards an Irish language act
appear to have become even more entrenched after the collapse of talks
to restore devolution. Picture by Hugh Russell</figcaption>
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John Monaghan
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<time class="gmail-lancio-datetime-string" datetime="06-03-2018 01:00">
06 March, 2018 01:00</time>
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<h2 class="gmail-title">Topics</h2>
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<li class="gmail-"><a href="https://www.irishnews.com/tags/Assembly-election">Assembly election</a></li>
<li class="gmail-"><a href="https://www.irishnews.com/tags/DUP">DUP</a></li>
<li class="gmail-"><a href="https://www.irishnews.com/tags/Irish-language-act">Irish language act</a></li>
<li class="gmail-"><a href="https://www.irishnews.com/tags/Lucid-Talk">Lucid Talk</a></li>
<li class="gmail-"><a href="https://www.irishnews.com/tags/poll">poll</a></li>
<li class="gmail-"><a href="https://www.irishnews.com/tags/Sinn-Féin">Sinn Féin</a></li>
<li class="gmail-"><a href="https://www.irishnews.com/tags/voters">voters</a></li>
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<div class="gmail-related-extra__caption">Support for the DUP has dipped slightly since September, according to the poll. Picture by Mal McCann</div>
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<p>ATTITUDES towards an Irish language act became more entrenched
after the collapse of talks to restore power-sharing, according to an
opinion poll.</p><p>The tracker survey of more than 2,000 voters was
carried out last month by Lucid Talk in the wake of the Valentine's Day
breakdown of negotiations.</p><p>Amongst DUP voters, support for the
party's policy of opposing an Irish language act rose from 67 per cent
in September to 79 per cent.</p><p>There was a similar rise amongst
voters of Sinn Féin, the SDLP and People Before Profit in their backing
of the legislation - from 68 per cent to 76 per cent over the same
period.</p><p>Asked how they would vote if there was another assembly
election, 33.6 per cent said they would support the DUP, while 32.4 per
cent would vote Sinn Féin. </p><p>That largely replicates the trend of last March's election, when Sinn Féin emerged with just one MLA fewer than the DUP. </p><div class="gmail-banner-container gmail-text-center"></div><p>However,
the survey showed a fall of 1.9 per cent in support for the DUP since
September, while Sinn Féin's popularity rose by 1.2 per cent.</p><p>Support
for the UUP also increased by 0.7 per cent, while the SDLP and Alliance
fell by 0.8 and 0.6 per cent respectively. The TUV was up 1 per cent.</p><p>There
is a big generational gap, according to the poll, with Sinn Féin
polling almost 10 per cent higher than the DUP amongst the 18 to 44 age
group.</p><p>Bill White from Lucid Talk told U105: "There are a number
of comments (in the responses) which show a small section of DUP
supporters were a bit unnerved about the way they handled the recent
talks."</p></div>
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<br clear="all"><br>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature">=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+<br><br> Harold F. Schiffman<br><br>Professor Emeritus of <br> Dravidian Linguistics and Culture <br>Dept. of South Asia Studies <br>University of Pennsylvania<br>Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305<br><br>Phone: (215) 898-7475<br>Fax: (215) 573-2138 <br><br>Email: <a href="mailto:haroldfs@gmail.com" target="_blank">haroldfs@gmail.com</a><br><a href="http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/" target="_blank">http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/</a> <br><br>-------------------------------------------------</div>
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