Did you know that Irish Gaelic is also spoken by a minority of the inhabitants of Northern Ireland? The general attitudes towards Irish Gaelic in the north usually seem to parallel the political climate between the two separate communities. Unionists generally view the language with much suspicion, as it's closely associated with the Irish Republic and it's Roman Catholic majority. There were some attempts to bring Gaelic more into the every day life of the region, and streets signs began to appear in both English and Irish Gaelic. However shortly thereafter, the Parliament of Northern Ireland officially banned the use of Irish road signs, and passed into law mandates that all signs must be in English only. These laws have caused much resentment within the Roman Catholic communities, who see them as official state sanctioned efforts to stifle their cultural identity, and suppress certain rights to public free speech.
