Member's statement: Garvaghy Road: Rights
Member's statement by Mr Daniel McCrossan on .
- MLA
- Mr Daniel McCrossan
- Party at the time
- Social Democratic and Labour Party
- Date
- 28 September 2026
- Type
- Member's statement
- Business
- Members' Statements
- Heading
- Garvaghy Road: Rights
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 5761908
Read the official Assembly record
Text
The weekend was what can only be described as absolutely and utterly depressing. It was depressing for everybody. A fundamental question has to be asked of politicians across the House who are bound to show leadership in their elected office: what did the actions of the weekend achieve? What does marching down the Garvaghy Road achieve? What purpose does it serve? It serves only to inflame and flare up tensions and remind people of our darkest and most difficult, challenging days. Twenty-one people died during those days. Twenty-one families suffered and were destroyed. That is the human cost of division. We should know, more than most, how easily the temperature can rise to those levels. We left the door to the march down the Garvaghy Road closed, 28 years ago, and it is a sorry sight for all of us to see that it has been allowed to be reopened. I have heard the parties in the House talk about rights — people's rights have been thrown about almost like a ping-pong ball. The reality is that people outside the Chamber who are watching the House want a simple thing. They want what was promised to them in 1998 — a society where people can live in peace and harmony, side by side, respectfully and in understanding of each other. The reality is that, in my 12 years in the House, I have never seen it so energised as it is now. I do not see the same level of anger or slurs across the House when it comes to our health service, children suffering in poverty or people waiting for a house. That brings us back to the fundamental point of why we were elected — to solve problems and improve people's lives. What about the rights of people who are on hospital waiting lists, the rights of those who are waiting to get a home, the rights of the families who want support for their children with special educational needs? What about those rights? The House does not get as energised about those rights. We get more energised about what divides us than what unites us. We have been through much worse. We need to realise that people outside of here are sick of it. No party in the House dare claim to speak for the entirety of one side of the community over the other. The people whom I am speaking to are sick, sore and tired of the same old messing about.
416 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: 0.22 (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).
- The text criticises or condemns the framing or division (0.88).
- Subject area: Sectarianism, hate crime and community relations.
- 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 | 0.41 | No |
| Sectarian or communal antagonism | 0.04 | No |
| Cultural grievance politics | 0.22 | No |
| Dog-whistle messaging | 0.13 | No |
| Controversy escalation | 0.36 | No |
| Legitimate policy scrutiny | 0.28 | No |
| Overall judgement | 0.22 | At or below not-flagging threshold |
| Option | Probability |
|---|---|
| No identity-based framing | 0.12 |
| Reports or questions it | 0.00 |
| Criticises or condemns it (chosen) | 0.88 |
| Adopts it | 0.00 |
| Subject | Probability |
|---|---|
| Sectarianism, hate crime and community relations | 0.71 |
| Parades, bonfires and commemorations | 0.18 |
| Legacy of the Troubles, victims and paramilitarism | 0.11 |
| No identity-related subject | 0.00 |
| Flags, emblems, symbols, names and memorials | 0.00 |
Assessed 21 October 2026 at 16:26 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.
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