Bridge over troubled waters

I had the great privilege today to visit the hardest-working and most-celebrated Irish language project in the country — An Droichead on the Ormeau Road.

A cultural centre which boasts a linked nursery school and primary school, An Droichead prides itself on its outreach programmes which bring ethnic minorities and members of the unionist community through its doors. For its unparalleled promotion of the Irish language, An Droichead (which means The Bridge) has also been awarded the First Prize in the annual Glór na nGael competition.

Seán Hayes (left in picture) and Pól Deeds, two committed language activists showed me round the An Droichead campus (sadly, still no permanent building there for the school) which is cut off from the Gas Works site by the railway line. Many people consider An Droichead to be in the Lower Ormeau (if so, it's the biggest employer there) but I see it as much more of a city-centre project and a bridge over the railway to the Gasworks site would do much to join up the communities around the city centre and encourage a free flow of pedestrian traffic.

Now the cultural champs behind An Droichead want to build an arts, tourism and education complex on the front of the Ormeau Road – on land belonging to the Department of Social Development and their neighbours UTV. It's an ambitious but realisable project which would give the Irish language a platform at the mouth of the city centre and boost the Lower Ormeau area. The real beneficiary would be the city of Belfast which could point to this oasis of culture as evidence of its growing sophistication and diversity. And it would be some turnaround since the late seventies, when I first encountered Lower Ormeau as a Queen's student, when it was drab and war-torn district (as I was reminded by some old RTÉ footage shown during the An Droichead presentation.)

It's less than 10 years since Scoil an Droichid won full recognition from the authorities and just ten since An Droichead opened. The group's dream of a new cultural jewel in the crown of Belfast is one we all share...and should help to make a reality.