Plans to extend bilingual traffic signage in west Belfast will boost the “energetic revival” of the Irish language in the city, it has been claimed.
Stormont’s infrastructure minister Liz Kimmins has confirmed a “scoping exercise” on extending traffic signage featuring Irish and English along the full length of the Falls Road, that has becoming the epicentre of the city’s Gaeltacht Quarter, says Irish News.
It follows the first bilingual traffic signs anywhere in Northern Ireland being installed on a short stretch of the road in July.
The pilot scheme was initially announced in 2024 by Ms Kimmins’ predecessor and fellow Sinn Féin MLA John O’Dowd.
Campaigners had expressed hopes the scheme would be extended, and Ms Kimmins confirmed the potential plans in an Assembly answer to a question from North Belfast Sinn Féin MLA Carál Ní Chuilín.
The minister said she had asked Department for Infrastructure officials to “complete a scoping exercise for the potential expansion of that pilot, which would extend dual language signage along the full length of the Falls Road within the Gaeltacht Quarter”
(Picture: Ibrahim Alkan)
