NORTHERN Ireland's new unionist party says its Twitter followers can expect more tweets in Irish.
NI21 was launched last week by former Ulster Unionist MLAs Basil McCrea and John McCallister who have promised a new direction. The party is keen to attract Catholic voters.
Yesterday eyebrows were raised among NI21's 850-odd Twitter followers when a tweet appeared in Irish.
The 'An mbeidh ráth ar pháirtí úr Mhic Ráth?' tweet was the headline from an Irish language blog about the new party.
It translates as 'Will there be success for McCrea's new party?'
According to NI21 director of communications Jonathan Rainey, it could be the first of many non-English language tweets from the new party's official account.
He said they would tweet in Irish "because our party is of interest to Irish speakers".
Mr Rainey said NI21 had also tweeted in Spanish and was likely to tweet in Ulster Scots in the near future.
"We are an inclusive party that aims to appeal to a variety of people who speak diverse languages," he said.
"Irish and unionism are not mutually exclusive."