THE OPENING OF a dedicated third-level accommodation for Gaeilgeoirs might seem a fairly innocuous development to anyone educated in the Republic.

All-Irish residential schemes are already well-established in most Irish universities, accommodating students who want to speak the language on a daily basis.

But plans for a new Irish-speaking scheme at Queen’s University Belfast (QUB) have been met with a flurry of online outrage, with Orange Order representatives accusing the institution of implementing “cultural apartheid”. 

In a recent joint statement, QUB Orange Society and the student and alumni lodge, Queen’s LOL 1845, claimed that the scheme would “create de facto ‘no-go’ areas” for Protestants attending the university.

“We fear that implementing a policy that sets apart and grants special privileges to one side of the community will only further isolate and discourage those of a unionist background,” said the statement.

“We have no issue with the Irish language or those who choose to speak it as part of their cultural heritage. Our concern lies rather with its continual weaponisation and policies such as this, which promote a culture of division and polarisation, attempting to make young Protestants feel like strangers in their own home.”

Daniel Holder of the Committee on the Administration of Justice, a Belfast-based human rights NGO, sees such resistance as symptomatic of a wider issue.

“Things still haven’t moved on in the North in the way they were supposed to on the back of the Good Friday Agreement,” he tells The Journal.

“We were meant to see a shift away from English-only policies to policies of linguistic diversity, with active promotion of the Irish language. The lack of political will means that that just hasn’t happened in some places.

“A few councils have done a good job, but every time an initiative is put forward there’s a hostile and irrational response.”

The criticism of the Irish-speaking scheme is by no means the first language-related controversy to hit QUB.

In 2018, An Cumann Gaelach – the university’s Irish language society – expressed anger about being denied permission to erect bilingual signs on campus.

The then acting vice-chancellor later apologised for the wording of a letter on the subject, which referred to the need for “a neutral working environment”.  

Linda Ervine of Turas, an Irish language centre in east Belfast, despairs at claims which paint Irish as a divisive language and says Irish-speaking spaces are valuable for both communities in the North.

“People from the Protestant community usually know fewer people who speak Irish, which means fewer opportunities to engage with it in our everyday lives,” she says.

“It would be great for students who are interested in the language to have this sort of accommodation as an option.”

Ervine points out that several Protestants who have passed through her own centre are currently studying Irish at university.

“I think it’s sad that people are trying to pick holes in the plan rather than look at it in a positive way, as has happened with similar schemes in Wales and Scotland.”

College network

The QUB residential project was developed by a college network formed by Véronique Altglas. A lecturer in sociology, Altglas had raised the suggestion with staff and students after hearing about the Irish residency scheme at Trinity College Dublin.

The French academic says she has not seen “any word of Irish” on campus since joining the university in 2008. She believed “for a long time that no one was speaking Irish in the North”.

But Altglas gradually discovered that the reality was quite different.

“We have so many students who are Irish speakers, and who socialise with their friends and family in Irish,” she says.

“The hope with this scheme is that, as in other universities, students would commit to promoting the language and being ambassadors for linguistic and cultural diversity. There’s more to it than just having people live together.”

Altglas has been frustrated at condemnation of the scheme by what she describes as “a handful of people”.

“There is an unhelpful idea that anyone who speaks or learns Irish is a republican and inimical to unionism. I’m a French person learning Irish, and there are unionists learning it in classes here as well.”

She also says that some students have even been mocked by people who are intolerant of the language.

“Students, for example, would tell me that their friend Áine or Róisín would be called ‘onion’ or ‘raisin’, or that people with Irish-sounding names would be asked for their ‘real’ name.” 

Holder agrees that critics of the plan make up only a small cohort in the university.

“It’s a political minority that reflects the politics of the past. Most young people have progressive attitudes on these things, but we have a system at the moment that amplifies the power of opponents of language rights,” she says.

The housing scheme will need to be approved by the university’s senate before opening to students.

However, The Journal understands that new and returning students will be allowed to register their interest in a language scheme before the start of the next academic year.

A spokesperson for QUB says the proposed initiative is “not an Irish language residency scheme” but rather a “languages residency scheme”, which will be available to students studying degrees with languages or a language element.

However, the university says Irish would be piloted in the first year of the scheme “due to demand”. 

The QUB Orange Society and Queen’s LOL 1845 did not respond to requests for further comment.