The only language of respect is candour

The UUP man’s gripe is that the new council will not have the words “Fermanagh and Omagh District Council” translated into an approximation of Ulster Scots, printed onto some stickers and pasted to the side of every council bin lorry and van and on the council letterhead and on all the council’s signage. “Is it cos I is Ulster Scots?” Powers of reasoning in any normal context would tell you that Councillor Baird is a real champion of the Ulster Scots language – a man standing up for all those of his Ulster Scots-speaking constituents unfairly marginalised by the abject failure of the Council to include it. Why else would he bother with it? Why else would he and eight other unionists use a shiny new “call in” mechanism to force the new council to spend time considering it? Why else would he advocate it as a good use of ratepayer’s money? Imagine that you are a fly on the wall. Imagine that an American diplomat has been brought in to get to the bottom of the dispute. He is holding a preliminary meeting with a slightly drunk chief unionist negotiator (don’t call the lawyers - this is purely imaginary) to get their side of the story. This is what you hear: “Well you see, Hank, it’s like this: nationalists want Irish plastered over everything, and I have people out there that I speak to and it gives them a wile dose of the heebie jeebies, to be honest with you Hank. It’s a slippery slope, and the next thing you know it’ll be agus this and agus that, and we won’t know where we are.” “Is it that bad? I mean, other parts of the UK have minority languages on the signs don’t they?” “Eh? No that’s different Hank. But look, we have vans with oul stuff written on the side of it that we can’t understand and - ” “But you know it says Fermanagh and Omagh Council, don’t you? It has the English on it too?” “- listen Hank. My father drove them vans for forty years and he’d be turning in his grave if he saw the sight of them now. It’s the language of the terrorist Hank and it’s all we heard while people were being murdered.” “I see. Though surely not all Irish language speakers are terrorists. But anyway, where does Ulster Scots come in?” “Well… I wouldn’t be that big on the Ulster Scots thing myself really… but never mind that, sure that’s not the point Hank. They’ve just gone and forced Irish onto us and they’re getting it all their own way with these things and they’re using Irish as a political weapon against us. I’ve no problem with people learning whatever language they want in their own time, but they shouldn’t be putting it onto council property and asking us to pay for it.” “But isn’t that exactly what you’re doing with Ulster Scots?” “Well…no… well why shouldn’t we have something for us if they’re getting Irish? Though as I say I wouldn’t be big into it myself… There’s girls do the dancing, you would see them at various events. And there’s the pipes and drums, you know, I like a bit of that. The language bit you wouldn’t get much of round here. That’d be more an Antrim thing…. But sure you have to do something, Hank, to put it up to these boys and with these equality things now you know, that seems to be the only way to do it.” So there you have it - all imaginary of course, but at least close to the sentiment behind this dispute. The history of the Fermanagh and Omagh areas shows virtually no trace of the Ulster Scots language in any recognised linguistic sense, and even the stoutest of our unionist brethren must recognise this as a sham fight. There’s a tactical posturing at the heart of it, and it demeans and politicises an Ulster Scots culture that many here (including Fermanagh group FUSE) genuinely value beyond some perfunctory writing on the side of a van.

That’s not to say that unionist concerns are to be totally ignored, because when Sinn Fein’s Barry McNally says his party’s preferred position was to use Irish only, and dispense even with the English, you do have to give the sheer gamesmanship of it all a very slow hand clap. Did Sinn Fein genuinely intend to use Irish only, or was it a stance taken purely to allow Barry to say, as he did, that the bi-lingual Irish/English outcome represents “compromise”? Certainly Irish-only would have excluded Sinn Fein’s own diversity champion, who doesn’t speak Irish, never mind the unlawful exclusion of almost the entire unionist community. Respect, Alex says. But how can there be respect, on either side, if you don’t have an open discussion about motives and concerns? Time for everyone involved in this charade to have a little drink together and share a few home truths. Save Hank the bother.