North’s policing board holds meeting in Irish
IT WAS an event few of those present thought would ever happen, a meeting of the Northern Ireland Policing Board held primarily in Irish.
The City Hotel in Derry was the venue for the historic meeting last night which was addressed by Assistant Chief Constable Judith Gillespie.
Her remarks were translated into Irish for the audience of about 30 people by two Irish-speaking PSNI officers.
“Yes it is a landmark event”, said Assistant Chief Constable Gillespie. “It enables us to listen to the concerns of the Irish-speaking community locally and to address those concerns. It is our responsibility to reach out to all communities and this is simply part of that process,” she said.
Independent policing board member Gearóid Ó hEára, a former Sinn Féin mayor of Derry, said the meeting was evidence of the political progress made in Northern Ireland in recent years.
“This is the outworking of the board’s outreach programme. It is very progressive and respective that this meeting is being held in Irish.
“Traditionally the Irish language community and the police have not exactly engaged with one another, but this is a sign of how much progress has been made here.”
Barry Gilligan, the board’s incoming chairman, described the meeting as “a major sea change for the Irish-speaking community at whose request the meeting was held.
“It is the first meeting of the board to be conducted in a language other than English, and we will facilitate such requests from other minority language groups”, he said.
