11:04

Sinn Fein’s core demand for an Irish Language Act is part of moves to hollow out the British identity from Northern Ireland, a senior Orangeman has told a 12th of July commemoration today.

Harold Henning, the deputy Grand Master of the Orange Order, speaking at demonstration in Co Down, accused republicans of turning off the unionist population from Irish because they had politicised it.

Gerry Adams’ party wants an act that will only deal with the rights of Irish language speakers in the region. It would effectively make Irish equal to English in law and possibly require compulsory translations in government department documents, the NHS and legal services.

The Orange Order’s stated opposition today at the climax of the Ulster marching season also underlines the problems the Democratic Unionists will face if they agree to Sinn Fein’s demands for such an act. It shows the unionist grassroots opposition the DUP could encounter over the act when negotiations to restore power sharing restart in the early autumn.

Henning told Orangemen:

Republicans have driven more people away from ever cultivating a genuine interest in Irish language than they will ever attract to it through their current radical proposals. The current demand for an Irish Language Act is simply the next chapter in the republican campaign to rid Northern Ireland of any semblance of British cultural identity.