Debate contribution: Shankill Gospel Hall: Racially Motivated Attack
Debate contribution by Mr Colm Gildernew on .
- MLA
- Mr Colm Gildernew
- Party at the time
- Sinn Féin
- Date
- 8 June 2026
- Type
- Debate contribution
- Business
- Matter of the Day
- Heading
- Shankill Gospel Hall: Racially Motivated Attack
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 5600280
Read the official Assembly record
Text
I have already made remarks linked to the issue in my Member's statement. First and foremost, I send my sympathy and thoughts to the victim of the attack and his family. Rightly, we discuss the issue, sometimes in abstract terms, but it will feel like a personal and frightening attack on them. A man is here trying to invest in the community and trying to do something positive, and he finds that his future lies in ashes about his feet. That is just disgraceful. There is a thread between the issues that I raised this morning in relation to what has happened in Moygashel in my constituency, on the Shankill Road at the weekend and at Scarva. That thread is intolerance. That is what people need to challenge and call out, because the other thread that links those issues is a lack of leadership. Only six months ago — it might be less than six months — Gordon Lyons, as Minister for Communities, was found to be in breach of the standards expected of him in relation to other attacks on families. His Facebook post was found to have fallen short of the required standards for leadership, accountability and community relationships. Let us be clear, Members: the lack of leadership being displayed here lets down not just marginalised communities and vulnerable individuals but your communities, because they deserve to see investment, diversity and inclusion. People in the Chamber have a responsibility to lead us to that future, rather than looking at a bleak past.
254 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
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