The response by the Northern Ireland Office (NIO) to mounting pressure from the government under the Anglo-Irish Agreement for greater recognition of the Irish language in the North is highlighted in declassified files.

Proposals from the Irish minister for foreign affairs, Peter Barry, and his officials prompted a range of views from the NIO, some sympathetic and some less so.

The starting point was a memo, dated January 7th, 1986, from the Irish side of the secretariat on the place of the Irish language in Northern Ireland, noting: “The Irish language is central to the identity and tradition of Irish nationalists and thus involves rights and objectives espoused by the Anglo-Irish Agreement.”

It said Mr Barry was “concerned that nationalists in the North had felt that this vital aspect of their identity has been insufficiently recognised . . . and accommodated”.

The Irish document identified four specific areas for “speedy action”: Gaelic place names; the use of Irish in official business; the inclusion of a question on the language in the 1991 NI census; and support for Irish-language publications and cultural events.

The document commented: “Irish, as a language, has hitherto had little or no more official status in NI than . . . French or Spanish.”

Street signs

In their response, dated January 13th, 1986, NIO officials felt legislation to permit dual-language street signs should be explored. Another document recorded that only “a small number of RUC officers – four or five – are reasonably fluent in Irish”.

The debate evoked a sympathetic attitude from Peter Bell of the NIO. Writing to his colleague D Elliott on March 20th, 1986, he recalled: “When I lived in Ghana, I did my weekly shopping when speaking English in Cape Coast; when speaking Fante, in Ognaa . . . I see no reason why I, or anyone else, should not similarly rejoice in a walk down Bóthar na bhFál [the Falls Road in Irish].”