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Arlene Foster has insisted a way can be found to craft a resolution to the Stormont roadblock on the Irish language.<\/p>\nArlene Foster has insisted a way can be found to craft a resolution to the Stormont roadblock on the Irish language.<\/p>\n
The DUP leader said she recognized there were many people in Northern Ireland who loved the language, suggesting there were even some in her own party.<\/p>\n
In an address to her party conference, Ms Foster called for a balanced agreement \u2013 one that would respect all cultures in the region.<\/p>\n
The impasse over the Irish language has been the central dispute in the two-and-a-half-year power-sharing crisis at Stormont.<\/p>\n
Sinn F\u00e9in has made an Irish Language Act a prerequisite of any deal to restore devolution.<\/p>\n
The DUP has expressed a willingness to legislate to protect the language, but only as part of broader culture laws that also include the Ulster Scots tradition.<\/p>\n
While Ms Foster used her speech on Saturday to urge compromise, she also heavily criticized her erstwhile partners in government, claiming Sinn F\u00e9in\u2019s \u201cboycott\u201d of Stormont had reduced them to \u201cglorified lobbyists posing for pictures to post on Twitter\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to see the Assembly and Executive rejuvenated and re-energized,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are up for that. We know that Northern Ireland works best when we work together. And to get a deal to bring Stormont back, there will need to be an agreement that we all can support.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve already committed more than two years ago to seek accommodation and to legislate in a balanced way for language and culture, including for the Irish language.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnfortunately we have had too many painful experiences of the manner in which councils particularly in the West have sought to implement Irish language policies.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut we recognize there are many in Northern Ireland who love the Irish language and for whom it is an intrinsic part of who they are.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, my offer stands. If we can find a way to craft language and culture laws that facilitates those who speak the language, but does not inappropriately infringe on or threaten others, the DUP will not be found wanting. But overall agreement needs to be a two-way street.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn particular, the DUP wants to see mechanisms to cultivate and grow relationships between Northern Ireland and Great Britain through all walks of life, including educational and cultural connections.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd if Stormont is to be restored on a long-term basis that means sharing the responsibility of a fair deal. No winners or losers, everyone putting their best foot forward to provide a brighter future for all.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ms Foster devoted a significant section of her speech to issues of identity and culture.<\/p>\n
She said unionism needed to be \u201cinclusive, welcoming and embracing to all\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt should permit individuals to express the cultural life they choose,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhilst many focus on Ulster-Scots and Unionism, let me be clear, it is not incompatible to be an Irish language speaker and a Unionist \u2013 indeed there might even be one or two here today.\u201d<\/p>\n
At that point, the big screen on the conference stage panned onto DUP MP Gregory Campbell, who once faced an Assembly ban for refusing to apologize for parodying the language during a sitting of the legislature.<\/p>\n
Ms Foster continued: \u201cBecause the backgrounds of Unionists are many and varied, Unionism should have many portals, and multiple gateways in.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe inescapable fact remains that people value Northern Ireland\u2019s place in the United Kingdom for a wide range of economic, social, historic and cultural reasons.<\/p>\n
\u201cCulture can play a big part in our identity and who we are. Too often though in Northern Ireland, culture has been demeaned and demonized, or proven detrimental to progress here.<\/p>\n
\u201cNorthern Ireland is rich in different cultures, and we need to embrace and cherish them in a manner that threatens no one.<\/p>\n
\u201cThose who seek to engage in a cultural war engage in a zero-sum battle. Northern Ireland is big enough to accommodate everyone\u2019s culture. Indeed as unionists, it is in our long-term strategic interests to ensure that everyone, regardless of their culture, feels at home in Northern Ireland.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat is why in the talks with other Northern Ireland parties we have proposed principles around cultural expression and identity that can harness and develop all that is good about these pursuits.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd we must use them as a force for good to educate, and help give people confidence and develop as individuals.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are so much more than two traditions in Northern Ireland now, and we need to give our new identities space to grow and prosper too.\u201d<\/p>\n