http://tinyurl.com/ysoq52 ...as an Irish Times:
“The Democratic Unionist Party is to block any bid to have an Irish Language Act passed in the Northern Ireland Assembly, according to a letter signed by party leader the Rev Ian Paisley (
http://tinyurl.com/2yrcvd)....
...The Strasbourg-based Committee of Ministers backed the findings of an 86-page report from a Council of Europe watchdog monitoring the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, which came into force in the UK in July 2001.
The Charter commits the British government to safeguard and promote Welsh, Scottish Gaelic, Irish, Scots, Ulster-Scots, Cornish and Manx Gaelic.
In the North, where demands for an Irish Language Act similar to the south's Official Languages Act, the Democratic Unionist Party has branded the proposal for an language act as divisive and discriminatory and "sponsored by Sinn Féin".
