BBC News Online: UK: Northern Ireland

Vandals in language blunder

The signs for Tullyard Way on the loyalist Clonduff Estate in Castlereagh had only just been erected after a survey showed at least 75% of residents were in favour of Ulster Scots signage.

Local Democratic Unionist Party Councillor Tommy Jeffers said that the vandalism occurred because of a "misunderstanding".

"The problem really is that the Ulster Scots was misunderstood by some people as Irish," he said.

"I believe it would be very imprudent of Castlereagh Council to try and put Irish signs up anywhere in the borough."

When the vandals realised their error, they returned the signs to the garden of Roy Adams, a Clonduff Estate resident who had petitioned for the erection of Ulster Scots signage.

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