Politician’s notepaper rebellion against Irish

Politician’s notepaper rebellion against Irish

30 October 2013

A DUP councillor says he has stocked up on stationery to avoid using the council’s new Irish language headed notepaper.

Billy Walker says he is angry at the Irish language being “forced” upon him following the recent introduction of the council’s bilingual policy.

At a meeting of local authority on Monday a number of unionist councillors challenged the recent agreement for a new Down Council logo, which will include the name of the council in Irish.

Councillor Walker said he had placed an order of notepaper before the new changes came in.

“I have plenty,” he told his fellow elected representatives. “It is wrong for a unionist to have this forced upon them.”

Ulster Unionist Robert Burgess agreed with Mr. Walker, stating: “This is deeply offensive to me. As a unionist I do not want it on my letters.”

Challenging their rationale, the SDLP’s Eamonn O’Neill said the Irish language was a part of the everyday local landscape.

“Are you going to have words such as Ballynahinch and Killyleagh removed?” he said.

Rejecting claims that the logo change was a cost the council could ill afford, SDLP councillor Gareth Sharvin said the bill had only totalled £60.

In a dispute over whether it was too late to debate the new logo, Councillor John Doris said unionists had a right to do so, but Councillor Anne McAleenan said it was a pointless exercise.

She said councillors had previously been tasked with choosing a logo out of two available options — but that both contained the Irish language.

Speaking after the meeting councillor Walker said he was adamant that at no point would he be using Irish language headed notepaper from Down Council, and would if necessary make his own.

Councillor Walker said he understood the arguments for the Irish language and its historic links to the Protestant community, but was unmoved when it came to his stationery.

“It should not be forced on me as an elected representative,” he said.

“At Stormont each minister has the right to choose his own stationery, and Sinn Fein from their perspective have chosen to use Irish.

“Unionists are having this rammed down their throats and they do not want it.”