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After much effort by Sinn Fein, Irish is finally catching on in loyalist areas, not least East Belfast.

Take a trip to Stormont, along the Newtonwards Road and you can't miss the words: Faugh a Ballagh.

These Irish words are festooned from almost every flagpole and lamp-post, as part of a newly sighted flag. It seems the flag - royal blue with a union jack in one corner and the Irish words at the bottom - has been raised to mark this weekend's Homecoming parade for the Royal Irish Regiment and others who haved served in Iraq and Afghanistan. "Faugh a Ballagh" is the motto of the Royal Irish Rangers, which was incorporated into the RIR.

As Caitriona Ruane - Sinn Fein's Irish speaking education minister - will well know, these Irish words translate as "Clear the Way."

Perhaps, Sinn Fein's opposition to the parade has had an unexpected boost for her beloved mother tongue.

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