On a tree-lined street in east Belfast, two metal poles beside a neat hedge are the only reminder of what police say is a hate crime.
Last Saturday, a vandal used an angle grinder to remove the Irish-language type on the name of the street Shandon Park, from a newly installed bilingual sign.
This quiet street, dubbed a “mini Malone” – the Malone Road is regarded as Belfast’s most affluent suburb – has become one of the most sought-after addresses in the city.
Barristers and doctors are among those living in its redbrick Victorian houses.
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There is even a golf club named after it; the club’s back entrance is in the middle of the street.
In an area once a bastion of unionism, children wearing Our Lady’s and St Patrick’s College Knock uniforms – a prestigious Catholic Grammar school a short distance away – walk the road on their way home.
“It’s the epitome of a leafy suburb ... and people living here are horrified by what happened on Saturday night. It was such a violent act,” says one resident.
“Like a lot of east Belfast, there is a growing Catholic or nationalist professional class in Shandon Park. But they don’t shove it in people’s faces; people just get along and they don’t think twice about it.”
The resident describes it as “a violent expression of a culture war. We don’t want it. It is quite a mixed community, but quietly so”.
Loyalists from the nearby Braniel estate are being blamed for the vandalism which the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) described as “hate-motivated criminal damage”.
“One line of inquiry we are investigating is that the suspect, who was holding an angle grinder, shouted verbal abuse at a man,” the PSNI says.
Tattered remnants of a union flag hang from a lamp-post outside the golf club. Two others were erected during the summer in a move connected to the signage row. This was the first time flags appeared in the street, and they were linked to loyalists from other areas.
Residents approached by The Irish Times on Monday are too nervous to disclose their names. All condemn the vandalism.
“This is not normal,” says one woman, pointing to the empty space where the street sign stood.
“But I knew it would cause problems, I just knew. I wasn’t offended but I thought: ‘How much does that cost? And how many people speak Irish?’”
Another woman from a Protestant background says she is not concerned by change.
“There are people out there who have a fear of their cultural identity being taken over; I know my cultural identity, and no one can take that one away from me,” she says.
Within 24 hours of the name plate appearing on Shandon Park last week, its Irish name, Páirc an tSeanduín, was spray-painted black.
The incident is the latest in escalating vandalism on bilingual street signs since the delayed scheme was passed by Belfast City Council three years ago.
Hundreds of signs have been installed in a move fiercely opposed by unionists, who liken it to “cultural branding”.
Cranmore Gardens, close to the Malone Road, was targeted twice last year after becoming the first street in the upmarket BT9 area to have Irish-language street signs.
Under council rules, just one resident in a street or their local councillor can request a consultation for the erection of a bilingual nameplate.
A 15 per cent threshold is required before it goes to full council for approval, a change heavily criticised by unionists.
When residents were consulted in Shandon Park, 16.8 per cent expressed support. Almost half (49.59%) were opposed.
One woman says she is “perturbed” by the level of opposition.
“I just don’t understand it. Neighbours were initially very supportive,” she says. “But I think the amount of fear that people in these areas are living under just can’t be underestimated.”
“You’ve seen the street – it’s really bougie,” she says, referring to the slang term for “bourgeois”.
“I’ve texted a few people I know who live there and they’ve said: ‘What the f**k?’”
The DUP are quite cynically trying to out-TUV the TUV
— Jake Mac Siacais of Irish-language development agency Forbairt Feirste.
The vandalism comes just weeks after controversy erupted over a vote carried at the council on a new draft policy to extend the use of Irish on signage at all its facilities, including a new bilingual logo on council vehicles and workers’ uniforms.
There was an outcry among unionists, with the hardline Traditional Unionist Voice (TUV) accusing the local authority of forcing the Irish language on communities who “don’t want it”.
The TUV’s Ron McDowell condemned what happened in Shandon Park but told the BBC it was “probably the most predictable crime in Northern Ireland”.
DUP leader Gavin Robinson said as a “shared city”, his party would not stand in the way of anybody trying to speak Irish but argued they did not want the language “foisted” upon the “vast majority who have no interest or knowledge”.
Threats by loyalist paramilitaries to launch an arson campaign to destroy Irish signage on council premises were also reported a fortnight ago. DUP Deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly dismissed them, saying there was “no evidence” for it.
Leading figures within the Irish-language community in Belfast have rounded on unionist leaders, accusing them of using rhetoric that is “emboldening” loyalists in their actions.
“Unionist parties are all vying with each other to be the staunchest within unionism, and the DUP are quite cynically trying to out-TUV the TUV,” says Jake Mac Siacais, director of Irish-language development agency Forbairt Feirste.
“The more that they continue with this anti-Irish message, the more they are encouraging lawlessness. They need to rein it in.”
Belfast is a “changing city”, says Mac Siacais, a fact reflected in a council once dominated by a unionist majority but where there are now only 17 out of 60 councillors.
“For unionism to keep raising the temperature around what is a simple act of inclusion and a simple act of celebrating the diversity of the city, it serves their own people ill,” he says.
Neither the DUP nor TUV responded when asked by The Irish Times about concerns raised by residents and the Irish-language sector.
For those living in east Belfast, there are growing fears within the unionist community about speaking out publicly in support of the Irish language.
Since summer there has been a shift in mood due to the rise in far-right politics, according to one resident.
“More widely at the moment, things are very feral,” she says.
East Belfast resident and former UUP director of communications Alex Kane agrees there’s an element within loyalism that’s “almost afraid of change”.
“But change is not necessarily a bad thing,” he says.
“People are coming to east Belfast in the past 10-15 years in a way they never did before. I fell in love with the place because it was so mixed.
“But there are people whose only purpose is to stir things up, we also see this happening within English nationalism.”
Yet change is happening, despite loyalist opposition.
Just over a mile from Shandon Park is east Belfast’s first integrated Irish-medium primary school, Scoil na Seolta, founded by Linda Ervine, an Irish-language activist from a Protestant background.
A group representing loyalist paramilitaries protested against the school being built but it opened its doors last month.
East Belfast GAA was founded during the Covid pandemic and despite being subjected to pipe bomb threats and intimidation, its members continue to swell.
“If you look at the dynamic in the city, the Irish-language revival is open – it spans the city,” says Mac Siacais.
“We have no desire to swamp anyone’s sense of identity; there’s no compunction on anyone to start learning Irish and we’re not putting Irish up as a counter to English.”
One Shandon Park resident from a unionist background previously lived in Scotland and Wales “where the indigenous language is celebrated”.
“We should be able to do the same thing here,” he says.
“I don’t speak Irish but it’s definitely on my to-do list. I don’t feel threatened by it.”
