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Row as UUP MLA hits out at Sinn Fein over their demands for equality and an Irish Language Act

Would an Irish Language Act cause deeper divisions between communities in Northern Ireland? Ulster Unionist leader Robin Swann thinks it would.

Would an Irish Language Act cause deeper divisions between communities in Northern Ireland? Ulster Unionist leader Robin Swann thinks it would - and he told his party conference at the weekend that while he had no problem with the Irish language, he would not support legislation. Sinn Fein hit out at the UUP, accusing them of being anti-agreement and also slamming their MLA Doug Beattie for branding them "political scavengers" in an article in the Belfast Telegraph. So, is the UUP lurching to the right in a bid to regain lost support? Stephen spoke to UUP MLA Doug Beattie just before we came on air and asked him if his article about Sinn Fein was disrespectful?

Also on the programme, a series of arson attacks on cars in south and east Belfast in the Ravenhill and Castlreagh Road areas, over the weekend, are being treated as racially motivated hate crimes. A parked car in Florida Street was set alight in the early hours of yesterday morning, damaging several other cars nearby. The bonnet and windscreen of a car in Wayland Street were damaged in a separate attack and a short time later a car parked in Carlingford Street was also set on fire. Stephen got reaction from Alliance MLA Paula Bradshaw.

And, remember that big surge in applications for Irish passports from Northern Ireland residents after the Brexit vote last year? Maybe you applied for one - Stephen did and he just used it for the first time last week. Now the Taoiseach Leo Varadkar is under fire for claiming that the majority of people in Northern Ireland - including unionists - will want to become Irish after Brexit. Stephen got reaction from former UKIP MLA David McNarry and the SDLP MLA Claire Hanna.

1 hour, 27 minutes

IRISH

IRISH

RACE ATTACK

RACE ATTACK

GENDER NEUTRAL

GENDER NEUTRAL

BREXIT

BREXIT

Broadcast

  • Mon 23 Oct 2017 09:03

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