Councillor Sonia Copeland
(Belfast City Council)
Speech at the Ulster Unionist Party Conference
#UUP17
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Leader, My Lords, Members of the Legislative Assembly, Councilors, Fellow Unionist and visitors.
Hello and welcome
Céad Míle Fáilte
Fair fa to ye guid billies
I greet you in the three official languages of the Northern Ireland Assembly, an arrangement that exists.
WITHOUT THE NEED FOR ANY LANGUAGE ACTS!
I stand before you today…The mother of two children who both speak Gaelic, a language referred to by some as Irish.
LEARNED WITHOUT THE BENEFIT OF ANY LANGUAGE ACT!
I stand before you today, the grandmother of a 5-year-old grandson, who is learning the Gaelic language.
LEARNING WITHOUT THE BENEFIT OF ANY LANGUAGE ACT!
I stand before you today as a member of one of the largest cultural organisation on this island. The Grand Orange Institution of Ireland, many of its lodges proudly bear the names of townlands, villages and districts derived from the Gaelic language.
THEY DO SO WITHOUT THE BENEFIT OF ANY LANGUAGE ACT!
I stand before you as a former member of the Royal Ulster Constabulary, a service fathered and mothered by the Royal Irish Constabulary. It is perhaps less widely known that the men of the RUC at the time of its establishment rejected the proposed new badge, a badge which feature the cross of saint George…..because it wasn’t Irish enough.
THEY CHOSE INSTEAD THE SYMBOLISIM OF IRELAND WITHOUT THE BENEFIT OF ANY ACT!
I also stand before you as a councilor for the Titanic constituency of East Belfast, where I see on a daily basis the real hardship that many of our most vulnerable citizens face…. EVERY MINUTE…OF EVERY HOUR…OF EVERY DAY!
VUNERABLE CITIZENS WHO WILL IN NO WAY BENEFIT FROM ANY LANGUAGE ACT!
In City Council I look across the chamber at Sinn Fein, a party given its name by Mary Lambert Butler, a relation of Sir Edward Carson.
A NAME GIVEN WITHOUT THE BENEFIT OF ANY LANGUAGE ACT!
I look across at Sinn Fein and I know that at a time, now thankfully passed some of those, across the chamber would have considered me and my family suitable candidates for murder. But that was then …. And this is now…
This is now….and we at the price of almost 4000 dead, many of them in the service of the Harp and Crown of the RUC and the winged Hibernia of the UDR, yet hundreds of thousands more maimed and injured and million upon millions of pounds expended at the behest of terrorists, WE ARE DEPRIVED OF A GOVERNMENT.
FOR THE WANT OF A LANGUAGE ACT!
In spite of all the failures in Health, Housing, Education, the economy, transport, the implementation of welfare reform, and every other devolved responsibility that discomforts and disadvantages all our citizens on a daily basis….
WE ARE DEPRIVED OF A GOVERNMENT
FOR THE WANT OF A LANGUAGE ACT!
If the two main parties cannot provide a government, that can act for the benefit of all of our people, then they should “GET OUT” … not tomorrow or the next week but now today! For this farce over which they are presiding is an affront to the memory of those who paid with their lives, to give them this opportunity.
I and this party, to which I belong are continually accused by Sinn Fein of getting into bed with the Conservative Party, in support of welfare reform and Tory austerity.
Given that it was Sinn Fein that handed welfare reform powers back to Westminster, that is as ironic as them holding placards denouncing Tory Cuts…after years of implementing sweeping cuts.
I know of no vote taken here or in Westminster where this party voted in support of destroying the welfare state, as it was envisaged after the Second World War.
Sinn Fein’s rhetoric on welfare reform did not match Sinn Fein’s actions. NOW they hide in the smoke of Language and Culture, in case their people grow wise to their complicity.
Recently it became clear, that a telephone service in the Gaelic language offered by Belfast City Council -
IN THE ABSENCE OF A LANGUAGE ACT!
…..had not been used by the public. The blame was then directed towards the council itself, for apparently not telling people it was available! In the name of goodness, does that false accusation by Sinn Fein stand up to scrutiny, given that the Bank of Ireland, just a short time ago, disconnected the Gaelic language option on its automatic teller machines, as no one… I say again… no one was using it, despite it being a clear option when using the machines.
Recent experience in Belfast City Council has reminded us what happens when Sinn Fein seek Alliance votes to promote their agenda.
This party had defended and will continue to defend the right of people to be who they are, and to be given the opportunity to be the best they can be, regardless of race, religion, color, creed, gender or political opinion.
WITHOUT THE NEED FOR ANY LANGUAGE ACT!
We find ourselves, confronted on the one hand by the DUP, who regaled and vilified almost every leader this party ever had, who derided every ulster unionist executive minister, particularly Michael McGimpsey, who had to fight for every penny for the health service, and today after several DUP health ministers we find…
Northern Ireland is failing…. Failing to meet its health targets, despite making it easier to hit the goal planned operations and care….
Since March 2015 it has gradually reduced the target from 80% to 55%...despite this cheating they still can’t meet the targets.
Do the DUP really think people are stupid… they must do… for they treat us all as if we are fools.
This is the very same DUP that poured scorn on the Belfast Agreement until they became the biggest party.
And the first thing they did was change the method of electing the first minister, making it impossible for Sinn Fein to hold that office in the absence of a Sinn Fein majority in the assembly, giving themselves the ability to blackmail the unionist electorate for the rest of time.
And confronted on the other hand …by Sinn Fein, WE OURSELVES OR OURSELVES ALONE, it makes little difference to me for they have become the greatest example of political apartheid on the face of this planet. They do not see culture, the arts or the Gaelic language as:
“A method of communicating with their friends, but as a weapon to discomfort their enemies”
The fragile peace that is being squandered by the two main parties did not come cheap, nor did it come from the magnanimity of Sinn Fein. It came by the unrelenting diligence and sacrifice of the men and women of the RUC and the UDR, and all other innocent victims sacrificed on the altars of the terrorists and their blood lust.
And now both those parties……. are fiddling while the most disadvantaged of our citizens face a winter, not knowing if they have anything to burn to keep warm. It is our people, all of our people, who are suffering because the two main parties are acting and being seen to act as dumb and dumber.
For a citizen to be told that they can’t be granted the tenancy of a home; for a working mother or father to see their in-work benefits cut… for a pensioner to be at the wrong end of a long list, waiting for surgery or for some poor soul suffering mental health illness to be left to suffer alone… for any citizen let down or being the recipient of bad news…. BAD NEWS IS BAD NEWS, no matter what language it’s delivered in.
What little money, we have should be spent wisely on Health, Education, Housing … and on all those things which make life better for all our citizens. Personally I don’t see how, one, two or three language acts assist this process in any way.
THE LANGUAGE OF POVERTY, HOMELESSNESS, UNEMPLOYMENT AND DISADVANTAGE IS UNIVERSAL….
I commend this resolution to the conference.