Member's statement: Civil Disobedience
Member's statement by Mr Pat Sheehan on .
- MLA
- Mr Pat Sheehan
- Party at the time
- Sinn Féin
- Date
- 5 October 2026
- Type
- Member's statement
- Business
- Members' Statements
- Heading
- Civil Disobedience
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 5773929
Read the official Assembly record
Text
Sometimes, the law is just wrong. It was wrong when it prevented women from voting. It was wrong when it criminalised homosexuality. Civil disobedience is a legitimate form of protest against bad law. Rosa Parks was right when she refused to go to the back of the bus. Muhammad Ali was right when he refused to be conscripted into the American army to fight against the Vietnamese. John Hume was right when he was arrested twice for civil disobedience. I just want to read a quote from a book that was published recently:
"As Lord Sumption, former Justice of the UK Supreme Court, set out during the Covid lockdown ... civil disobedience does not represent a refusal to comply with the Rule of Law, but rather if one consciously refuses to obey what is felt to be an unjust law, then you do so, but accept the legal consequences which come from that."
Who wrote that? Was it a Shinner? Was it a republican? No. That quote is from a recently published book called 'Culture War', which was written by your good friend Mr Jamie Bryson.
186 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
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