‘Local people’ have been protesting a one-class Irish language integrated primary school due to start on an industrial site on Montgomery Road in East Belfast. It appears to be the usual unionist hostility to anything ‘Irish’ mixed with demographic anxiety in this constituency.
The opposition makes no sense. The little school will go about its business unnoticed. It will have zero effect on demographics. The Irish language is part of unionist and Ulster-Scots heritage. And there are lots of things in East Belfast that I don’t use or like, but it hasn’t crossed my mind to put up banners saying those things shouldn’t be there. (‘Yoga is too challenging! Get out of town!’)
But this story is even more depressing than it appears.
On up the Montgomery Road is a GIANT WEAPONS FACTORY.
Thales UK has been there for decades (under various names) making its killing machines.[1] You can read a description of it in corporate-dystopian-speak here. You can go see it, maybe after a swim in Lisnasharragh pool or picking up a few items in Lidl. I’m not aware of local opposition to this. Or has the factory recently – or ever – been the subject of a public consultation?
Tiny school, get lost. Global arms manufacturer, yes please. Unionism, which opposes what it likes to call the ‘weaponisation of Irish’, is totally fine with actual weaponisation!
Update – March 2025
This post led to me being interviewed by the Belfast Telegraph newspaper for a piece about the factory, after Thales announced a big expansion. The article is behind a paywall here. It’s a good piece, with some critical voices, unlike the usual bland and positive media reporting of the arms trade in terms of ‘investment’ and ‘jobs boosts’.
The article mentioned something that I mentioned to the journalist, which is that Thales and Spirit are sponsors, as of 2024, of the Portrush airshow run by Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council. Seaside family fun brought to you by arms companies. See my photo below. This kind of sponsorship was banned by Edinburgh City Council last year on ethical grounds.
After the Telegraph article, I was contacted by INNATE who pointed out that, contrary to what my blog post implied, there had been many protests at Thales. There are photos here. For more on Thales and other Northern Ireland based weapons manufacturers, see the website of the UK Campaign Against the Arms Trade.
[1] Thales, a French company, isn’t even the only weapons factory in East Belfast. Spirit is over on the Airport Road.
David Mitchell 
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