Debate contribution: Civil Disobedience
Debate contribution by Mrs Emma Little-Pengelly on .
- MLA
- Mrs Emma Little-Pengelly
- Party at the time
- Democratic Unionist Party
- Date
- 5 October 2026
- Type
- Debate contribution
- Business
- Oral Answers to Questions
- Heading
- Civil Disobedience
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 5774273
Read the official Assembly record
Text
Sinn Féin needs to get real if the Member genuinely thinks that you have not done significant damage to the position of First Minister and these ministerial positions that, at their very heart, have to be about upholding the law. As I have said before, key to this is the fact that you cannot demand equality and then claim an exemption for yourselves, time and time again. The reality is that I have proven, by my track record, that I show respect, but I also demand respect. I am proud of who I am but I am also respectful of who other people are. I will say this very clearly: nobody is going to be treated like a second-class citizen just because they are asked to show a modicum of respect and tolerance. The reality is that, if we are to build the future for Northern Ireland that we want to see, it has to be about people coming together with tolerance and respect for each other and our differences. What I heard on the Garvaghy Road was not from the residents. The Member said that there were plenty of residents there, but we have not seen them or heard from them because it has been so dominated by Sinn Féin representatives, Sinn Féin councillors, the First Minister, Breandán Mac Cionnaith and others. The reality is that Sinn Féin flooded the area for sheer electioneering purposes. I reached out to the First Minister and asked her to put out a statement to call for calm and to stand with me in calling people off the streets so that we could move forward together. The reality is that she chose to follow the law of the mob instead of the law of the land. She chose Sinn Féin politics over her responsibilities as First Minister, and that is shameful.
308 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
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