Northern Ireland Sign Language

Northern Ireland Sign Language (NISL) is a sign language used in Northern Ireland, mainly Belfast. It is a dialect of American Sign Language (ASL) and British Sign Language (BSL), mixed together, and as such is a natural language, not a signed representation of English. It is not to be confused with Irish Sign Language, which is also used in Northern Ireland.

There is no real linguistic research into the language as of yet. Unionist BSL users (mainly members of the British Deaf Association) and NISL users who were educated in England claim and influence the local policy that it is a Belfast/Northern Ireland dialect of British Sign Language.

NISL came into form when Francis Maginn returned from Gallaudet College (now called Gallaudet University) and asked the Ulster Institution for the Deaf and Dumb (known as the "Old Lisburn Road School") to appoint Thomas Tillinghist as the headteacher from the USA.

British Sign Language was brought to Belfast in the early 1800s as it was used at the Claremont Institution (Ireland's first school for the Deaf) and there were a sustainable number of children at Claremont who were from Belfast.