Identity and Language (Northern Ireland) Act 2022

The bill includes the following provisions: • Official recognition and protection of the Irish language • Development of the Ulster Scots and Ulster British tradition • Two commissioners appointed, an Irish Language Commissioner and a Commissioner for the Ulster-Scots and the Ulster-British Tradition • The creation of an Office of Identity and Cultural Expression • £4 million investment in an Irish language investment fund. The provisions on the Irish language were based on the model of the Welsh Language Act 1993. ==Background==

About 184,898 (10.65%) Northern Irish people have some knowledge of Irish, while about 4,130 (0.2%) speak it as their vernacular. Before the act, the status of the Irish language as a minority language was guaranteed by the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. This continues to bind the United Kingdom. Since 2008, the Irish republican party Sinn Féin has been advocating that these protections be strengthened by legislation. Support and opposition The legislation was supported by An Dream Dearg, Conradh na Gaeilge, POBAL, Sinn Féin, the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP), the Alliance Party, and People Before Profit. It was opposed by the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP). Irish language activist and unionist Linda Ervine stated that she had come to support the legislation after comments by DUP MLA Gregory Campbell mocking the Irish language. She said that the act would have little effect on non-Irish speakers and that some politicians had engaged in "scaremongering". When a draft bill was leaked after talks stalled in 2018, Irish language groups criticised the legislation for not going far enough, specifically in not creating new rights for Irish speakers. Meanwhile, DUP supporters condemned the compromise legislation. In 2017, pressure group An Dream Dearg organised a rally in favour of the act in Belfast, attracting several thousand supporters. In May 2019, more than 200 prominent Irish people signed an open letter urging then Republic of Ireland Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and then Prime Minister of the UK Theresa May to support the act. Then DUP leader Arlene Foster has stated that it would make more sense to pass a "Polish Language Act" than an Irish Language Act, because more Northern Ireland residents speak Polish than Irish. This claim was disputed by fact checkers. Foster also stated that "If you feed a crocodile they're going to keep coming back and looking for more" with regard to Sinn Féin's demands for the act and accused the party of "using the Irish language as a tool to beat Unionism over the head." == History ==

Sinn Féin and POBAL, the Northern Irish association of Irish speakers, pointed out that the British government promised to introduce such an act in the 2006 St Andrews Agreement. Unionists said that they never supported such a commitment. Proposed provisions (2014, 2017) In 2014, legislation sought by Sinn Féin would appoint an Irish language commissioner and designate Gaeltacht areas. It would also provide for the right to use Irish: an Act that would provide for • the official status of the language • Irish in the Assembly • Irish in local government • Irish and the BBC • Irish in the Department of Education; • the role of a Language Commissioner • placenames. Other proposals have included replicating the Welsh Language Act 1993 and Gaelic Language (Scotland) Act 2005. Role in political deadlock (2017 to 2020) In January 2017, then Sinn Féin Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness resigned in protest over the Renewable Heat Incentive scandal, and the party declined to replace him. Due to Northern Ireland's power-sharing system, a government cannot be formed without both parties, and the Stormont Assembly was suspended. Gerry Adams, then Sinn Féin leader, stated in August 2017 that "There won't be an assembly without an ." In the agreement, there would be no standalone Irish Language Act, but the Northern Ireland Act 1998 would be amended and policies implemented to: • grant official status to both the Irish language and Ulster Scots in Northern Ireland; • establish the post of Irish Language Commissioner to "recognise, support, protect and enhance the development of the Irish language in Northern Ireland" as part of a new Office of Identity and Cultural Expression (alongside a Commissioner for the Ulster-Scots and the Ulster-British Tradition); • repeal a 1737 ban on the use of Irish in Northern Ireland's courts; and • establish a central translation unit within the Northern Ireland government. Debate on the exact language of the act stalled in the assembly throughout 2021, with the 'titles of commissioners' reportedly being a concern. In 2022, with an early election called for that May, it was announced no such legislation would be enacted before the end of the legislative period. In the Parliament of the United Kingdom (2022) Ultimately, the legislation was enacted by the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The Identity and Language (Northern Ireland) Bill was introduced in the House of Lords on 25 May 2022 and scrutiny there was concluded on 13 July. The bill received its first reading in the House of Commons the following day and its second reading on 12 October. The recorded vote on second reading received support across the political spectrum, with the only four no votes coming from the Democratic Unionist Party, the predominant right wing loyalist party in Northern Ireland. Sinn Fein, the predominant left wing Republican party in Northern Ireland did not vote. The bill passed in the House of Commons with its third reading on 26 October. On 6 December, the act received royal assent, meaning that Irish would become an official language in Northern Ireland once the relevant provisions are brought into force. == See also ==