Age-friendly space plan almost parked over Irish language row
Cork County Council is aiming to make signage for age-friendly parking spaces uniform throughout the county, though this has sparked anger from some who want the Irish language included on the signs.
New designs for all age-friendly car parking spaces for the over 55s in Cork have been adopted – but not before they sparked a row over the Irish language.
What appeared to be a formality of just signing off on the designs quickly descended into a row when noted Irish-speaker and Fianna Fáil councillor Gobnait Moynihan demanded that all accompanying signs for the spaces be bilingual.
A number of age-friendly parking spaces have already been provided in prominent areas in some town and car parks, with varying colours and designs. The purpose of the new policy is to create a uniform standard throughout the county.
Ms Moynihan, who lives in the Muscraí Gaeltacht, was told by council officials that the signs would be exclusively in English outside of the Gaeltacht areas.
She said while she welcomed the uniformity policy, she was angered that “instead of being inclusive, the Irish language is, in fact, being boxed into the Gaeltacht areas only".
The council's director of roads, Pádraig Barrett, said both languages couldn't be written on the space as it was seen as too cumbersome and difficult to read.
The report on new uniformity was developed by the council’s Roads and Transportation Special Purposes Committee (SPC) so that everybody visiting an unfamiliar town would know exactly who the spaces are meant for.
However, a number of other councillors supported Ms Moynihan's call, including her Fianna Fáil colleague Cllr Sheila O'Callaghan, who suggested a compromise by using the letter A, symbolising Age as well as Aois – the Irish word for age.
"What about all those who speak Irish outside of the Gaeltacht areas? What about all those who have an interest or a love for the Irish language outside of the Gaeltacht area? What about everyone outside of the Gaeltacht area that is proud of our national language? Why are they being forgotten?” Ms Moynihan added.
Fine Gael councillor Kay Dawson urged them not to put the new policy to a vote, but a number of councillors persisted in asking for one.
They were eventually defeated by 28 votes to 12.
Independent councillor Declan Hurley, who is chairman of the SPC which drew up the new policy, said he was “disappointed that after months of discussion and collaboration with stakeholders the policy had to be passed by a vote and not by consensus”.
“This policy had been delayed by a year coming to council and what we presented to members was the best possible solution for the inclusion of the Irish language where appropriate and bilingual wording seemed more important than the real purpose of the policy, which is to provide convenient parking spaces for people aged 55 and over,” Mr Hurley said.
