Identity and Language (Northern Ireland) Bill [Lords]

Bob Stewart Excerpts

Wednesday 26th October 2022 Commons Chamber

The hon. Member for Worcester (Mr Walker) mentioned heritage and how Ulster Presbyterians—as well as Irish Presbyterians—were heavily involved in the revival of the Irish language towards the end of the 19th century and the early 20th century. There is a shared heritage. The problem has been that, in recent times, the language has, wrongly, become politicised and people have been forced into different camps. That is not where we should be and I hope—that may well be naive, although I trust not—that the Bill may well be a fresh start in how we embrace the language issue in Northern Ireland.

[Bob Stewart (Beckenham) (Con)]

I thank the hon. Gentleman for giving way; he is a good and fair man, as I know because I am on the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee as well. However, there must be something that is worrying our friends in the DUP. They are all concerned about this and, rightly, we have to try to alleviate those concerns. That is quite proper and I hope very much that we can do that.

[Stephen Farry]

I want to listen to reasoned arguments. Some of the DUP amendments may well have merit, but I am dubious about amendment 1 for a detailed reason, which I will mention.

I also want to address the points about Polish, Lithuanian and other languages needing greater attention. It is important to move beyond that argument, which is often thrown up. The reason that the Bill is before us is not about facilitating the use of language and people who face a barrier to understanding. It is about respecting, embedding and celebrating the indigenous languages of the island of Ireland, particularly the northern part. We should, of course, do work in parallel with that to ensure that we properly integrate people with other European and global languages into our society, but it is important that Members do not fall into the trap of trying to conflate the two and diminish what we are trying to achieve with the Bill. It is also important that we celebrate the language as being cross-cutting and to recognise that Unionism and nationalism are not monolithic in Northern Ireland. There are many other traditions. There are people who have moved away from those traditions and people who share both those traditions. We need to celebrate all that in our life in Northern Ireland.

At times, this debate has drifted into the Bill being somehow a threat to Unionism and the British identity in Northern Ireland.