SHARP CRITICISM HAS been directed at a decision by the Northern Ireland Department for Communities after the DUP Minister for the department, Gordon Lyons, brought an end to funding for a project that provides authoritative versions of place names for bilingual signage.

The Northern Ireland Place-Name Project had been operating since 1987 at Queen’s University Belfast and had been under the direction of Professor Mícheál Ó Mainnín, a professor with expertise in linguistics, with one assistant and voluntary workers supporting the work. The unit had been receiving funding of £90,000 (€105,000) per year until that funding came to an end at the close of April.   

A statement posted on the project’s website says:

The Northern Ireland Place-Name Project has now reached the end of its current funding period. As a result, the project team is in the process of winding down activities. At this time, we regret that we are no longer in a position to respond to new enquiries or requests for information or translations. We appreciate your understanding as the project concludes this phase of its work. Any update will be shared here should the situation change in the future.

This decision comes as a High Court ruling was handed down last week dismissing an appeal taken by a member of the Unionist party Traditional Unionist Voice, who was unhappy about Belfast City Council’s decision to adopt a new Irish language policy. A central element of that policy was that bilingual versions of street names in the city would be erected.

Last month a Portadown pensioner had won her challenge in Belfast High Court to a decision by the local Council to refuse permission for a bilingual sign on her street. 

In a statement issued by SDLP Communities spokesperson Mark H. Durkan, it was said it was a great source of disappointment that funding had been ended for a project that “had done so much to enrich life in Northern Ireland over 30 years.”

“The Northern Ireland Place-Name Project helped us to gain a better understanding of our shared history, the places we come from and how those places came to receive their names,” he said.

“In recent years the project played an important role in translation work for bilingual signage — signage that is becoming increasingly common — and there will be serious consequences for local councils and their ability to continue that work.”

Durkan said the Minister for Communities had been aware that funding was needed for this work to continue and demanded that the Minister provide a clear explanation for why this funding is now being withheld.

“Taking into account how important this work is for the Irish language, there are legitimate questions about this decision and whether there was a political motivation behind it,” he said.

“Too often important projects like this are cut while significant sums of money disappear into a black hole at Stormont or are spent on projects that the Minister has a particular fondness for.”

Minister Lyons said that it was the Department of Finance — at a time when a Sinn Féin member was Minister — that made the decision in 2022 regarding the funding of the project and that he had no role in the decision to cut the funding. At that time the funding of the project came from the Department of Finance.

Speaking on BBC Radio Ulster, Lyons responded to a question from the presenter asking why he had taken the decision to end the funding for the project.  

“First of all, I haven’t taken any decision, this was a project that was funded over the last four years by the Department of Finance, not me, not the Department of Communities, but the Sinn Féin led Department of Finance,” he said.

“I’m not saving £90,000, I’m not reallocating £90,000 elsewhere, the only Department that’s reallocating £90,000 elsewhere is the Sinn Féin led Department of Finance.

“And I actually have emails in front of me here between officials from the Department of Communities and the Department of Finance from March and April, asking the Department of Finance if they were prepared to continue to fund this project and the answer that came back on multiple occasions is that they were not prepared to fund it anymore.”

Colm Gildernew, the Sinn Féin MLA who’s chairman of the Department for Communities scrutiny committee, said that the Minister had sent him a written response to an Assembly question about the funding of the project in April. 

In this response, Lyons confirmed that the responsibility for funding the project had been with his Department since 2022 and that officials of the Department were at stage reviewing  future funding options for the project. 

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