Member's statement: Hillsborough Boys Junior Football Club
Member's statement by Mr David Honeyford on .
- MLA
- Mr David Honeyford
- Party at the time
- Alliance Party
- Date
- 9 June 2026
- Type
- Member's statement
- Business
- Members' Statements
- Heading
- Hillsborough Boys Junior Football Club
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 5601488
Read the official Assembly record
Text
At the weekend, I attended the Hillsborough Boys Junior Football Club's end of season awards event. The club has more than 500 playing members on boys, girls and adults teams as well as Football for All and walking football teams. The club is at the heart of the community in Lagan Valley, and the awards were a fantastic evening to celebrate players, volunteers and coaches. I want to say "Well done" to everyone concerned. One message came through really clearly, however, which was that as the club continues to grow, it needs more facilities and pitches. Club members urged us to get on with developing the Maze/Long Kesh site. That brought me back to a statement that we heard in the Chamber last week. I want to be really clear about this. The future of Northern Ireland will not be built by bulldozers, but through jobs, investment, sport and the arts and by creating opportunities for future generations. Ultimately, however, it will be built by sharing this place. No young person at Hillsborough Boys Junior Football Club will get on to a new pitch because we demolish a building. They will get on to a pitch because we choose to build a better future for all of us. The Maze/Long Kesh site offers the opportunity to provide sports pitches for local clubs and facilities for Commonwealth Games teams that we do not have in Northern Ireland. There is a chance to create jobs, attract investment and unlock economic potential. It is a strategically important site on the Dublin to Belfast economic corridor. Yes, the site also offers the opportunity to tell our story honestly and factually, while welcoming visitors from across the world who want to understand it. The site will never be about glorifying the past, creating shrines or anything else. It must be about building a better, shared future for all of us, and that the hope for tomorrow is better than it is today. What struck me most last week was how quickly a bulldozer can generate headlines. Yet, positive conversations about sharing this place and about jobs and opportunities for tourism and sport never attract the same amount of attention. Have we become so comfortable that we would rather argue about yesterday and score cheap political points than plan and work for a better tomorrow? The choice is really simple. We can either focus on the dead end of tearing things down, constantly encouraging division, or we can focus on building things up and sharing this place, creating better opportunities and a better future for everyone who lives here. For clubs such as Hillsborough Boys Junior Football Club and others in Lagan Valley and for the future of this region, we need hope, not the scaremongering that we constantly hear in here.
466 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
Assessment
Jev’s structured answers met the documented threshold for “not flagged”.
- Overall probability that the activity is being used to promote, exploit or escalate an identity-based controversy: 0.14 (flagging needs at least 0.70; at or below 0.30 is not flagged).
- None of the five culture-war criteria was met (each was below 0.60).
- No identity-based framing was identified (0.54).
- Subject area: Legacy of the Troubles, victims and paramilitarism.
- The overall probability was at or below the not-flagging threshold.
This is an AI-generated assessment of the text, made against published criteria. It is not a finding of fact about the MLA or their intentions. The Assembly record itself is the fact.
Jev’s structured answers
| Question | Probability | Met? |
|---|---|---|
| Identity framing | 0.12 | No |
| Sectarian or communal antagonism | 0.03 | No |
| Cultural grievance politics | 0.09 | No |
| Dog-whistle messaging | 0.08 | No |
| Controversy escalation | 0.14 | No |
| Legitimate policy scrutiny | 0.58 | No |
| Overall judgement | 0.14 | At or below not-flagging threshold |
| Option | Probability |
|---|---|
| No identity-based framing (chosen) | 0.54 |
| Reports or questions it | 0.01 |
| Criticises or condemns it | 0.45 |
| Adopts it | 0.00 |
| Subject | Probability |
|---|---|
| Legacy of the Troubles, victims and paramilitarism | 0.61 |
| Sport (including the GAA), the arts and cultural bodies | 0.25 |
| Sectarianism, hate crime and community relations | 0.09 |
| No identity-related subject | 0.03 |
| Flags, emblems, symbols, names and memorials | 0.01 |
Assessed 21 October 2026 at 15:47 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.
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