Translating for linguistic minorities in Northern Ireland: a look at translation policy in the judiciary, healthcare, and local government

Abstract

Europe as a multilingual continent hosts three main types of languages: dominant languages, autochthonous minority languages, and new minority languages. From a policy standpoint, planning for speakers of these languages and their needs become a complex matter in which many actors with different interests are involved. Of the many issues which policy-makers must deal with, the role of translation is often unexplored. However, in any multilingual territory, the adoption of a language policy implies decisions whether to translate or not. With that understanding, this paper explores the role of translation in language policy in Northern Ireland. By doing so, we highlight the translation implications of policy decisions. This helps to illustrate the complexity of language and translation policy. In detail, the paper explores the complexities of language policy as seen in translation policies for speakers of Irish, Ulster Scots, and new minority languages. Specifically, it considers translation policies in the judicial system, in the healthcare system, and in local governments.

Keywords:

• language policy
• translation policy
• Northern Ireland
• courts
• healthcare
• local government

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank Reine Meylaerts, Esmaeil Haddadian Moghaddam, and the journal's peer reviewers for their feedback during the drafting of this paper. This paper was written in the framework of TIME (Translator Research Training: An integrated and intersectoral model for Europe), a Marie Curie Initial Training Network (FP7-PEOPLE-2010-ITN) established with support from the European Commission.

Notes on contributor

Gabriel González Núñez is a Marie Curie Actions fellow at KU Leuven (Belgium), where he is completing his PhD. He has worked as a sports broadcaster, language teacher, translator, interpreter, lawyer, and college professor, and he has volunteered for a number of non-profit organizations.

Notes

1. In adopting this definition of translation policy, it is not our intention to say that language and translation are to be understood conceptually the same way. While translation policy is not synonymous with language policy, translation policy is not independent from language policy. Thus, approaches that are helpful for language policy conceptualization may also help conceptualize translation policy. Even so, translation policy can still be analyzed as a policy in its own right, which is what is done in this study.

2. This may be slowly changing. For example, a community center in East Belfast is teaching the Irish language to Protestants, something that would have been very unlikely ten years ago (Schrank, 2013).

3. A Shared Future was an initiative of the Northern Ireland Office during the 2002–2007 direct rule. The devolved government is currently in the process of adopting another policy document that will be called Cohesion, Sharing and Integration. As of this writing, the new policy has not been adopted, mostly due to contention among the political parties (McDermott, 2012, pp. 193–194). A number of ideas in the yet-to-be-adopted policy document ‘have seeped into the consciousness of government departments, cultural institutions, regional arts bodies and local city authorities’ (McDermott, 2012, p. 194); however, because no final shape has yet been given to the policy and it remains to be seen how much translation will be a part of it, this paper considers only the impact that A Shared Future has had on translation in Northern Ireland.

4. Now the Northern Ireland Courts and Tribunals Service, this agency is charged with running the courts of Northern Ireland.

5. This ‘short guide’ was produced in 2011 as an updated, slimmed-down version of 2003s Racial Equality in Health and Social Care: Good Practice Guide. The 2011 short guide does not replace, but rather complement, the 2003 guide.

6. Many healthcare providers have come to rely on the NIHSSISS service. When it first started operating in 2005, it received 7707 requests for medical interpreters, yet the requests increased gradually, and in 2009 it received over 40,000 requests (McDermott, 2011, pp. 136–137).

7. The Northern Ireland Ambulance Service is not analyzed because, as the name indicates, it has a different remit than the other HSC Trusts.

8. An example of this is the controversy that broke out in the Dungannon and South Tyrone council when a receptionist answered the telephone in Irish. This was interpreted by some as a sign that the council was becoming hostile to Protestants (Irish Telephone Call, 2013).