Irish language group Conradh na Gaeilge said it has been informed that Northern Ireland secretary Hilary Benn will this week commence section 4 of the Identity and Language (Northern Ireland) Act 2022, which will repeal the Administration of Justice (Language) Act (Ireland) 1737.

It will be up to Northern Ireland’s justice minister, Naomi Long, to subsequently bring forward guidelines for the use of Irish in court settings.

Niall Murphy, partner at Belfast firm KRW LAW, said: “This announcement from the British government is a major milestone in the ongoing journey towards comprehensive language rights for Irish speakers here in the north.

“It is now imperative that the justice minister brings forward robust guidelines that recognises the ever-growing community of Irish speakers across our society and facilitates their inclusion in our legal services and spaces.

“This watershed moment in the Irish language movement must have a real-life and practical impact on all of those people who chose to live their lives through the Irish language, ending centuries of marginalisation and exclusion from public life.”

Ciarán Mac Giolla Bhéin, president of Conradh na Gaeilge, said: “This is an incredibly historic moment for the Irish language community here in the north, a major victory against centuries of exclusion and discrimination that is testament to the power and resolve of our community.

“Whilst similar legislation was repealed in Wales, Scotland and the south long, long ago, once again, Irish speakers here in the north were, as always, left behind, as an ongoing legacy of colonial policy designed to eradicate the Irish language from all vestiges of public life.

“Only the immense grassroots campaign for language rights, which brought over 20,000 people onto the streets of Belfast, would bring us closer to a society where Irish speakers are afforded the same rights as everyone else.”

He added: “The Irish language must have equal status in all of our public and shared spaces. That is what equality looks like.

“Now that this penal-era ban has finally been repealed, it is up to the Executive to ensure the provision underpinning Irish speaking rights in our legal arenas are based on best-practice and equality.

“We have written to the justice minister, who is, from this point on, responsible for setting out the new Irish language policy of our courts and legal systems, to ensure we the needs and expectations of our community are realised in full.”