Debate contribution: Exclusion of the First Minister from Office under Section 30 of the Northern Ireland Act 1998

Debate contribution by Mr Philip McGuigan on 12 October 2026.

MLA: Mr Philip McGuigan
Party at the time: Sinn Féin
Date: 12 October 2026
Type: Debate contribution
Business: Assembly Business
Heading: Exclusion of the First Minister from Office under Section 30 of the Northern Ireland Act 1998
Assembly identifier: Official Report component 5786814

Text

I am proud of my ministerial colleagues; in fact, I am proud of all of my party colleagues. I am also proud that, along with thousands of people, I was able to stand in support of and in solidarity with the people and residents of the Garvaghy Road in defiance of that sectarian and triumphalist parade. Those Garvaghy Road residents have shown courage, strength and dignity through two weeks of fear and anxiety. To understand why our solidarity with the residents matters, we need to understand the history of that parade in Portadown, but we also have to understand the history of this state. If you want to understand the history of this state, all you have to do is listen to Jon Burrows's contributions in the House. I am not old enough to have heard Craig or Brookeborough, but I doubt that either of those two displayed the arrogance and sense of superiority that we have to listen to from Jon Burrows every time he gets to his feet. This state was built by the UUP — Jon Burrows's party. It built the state around unionists, discrimination and domination. "A Protestant Parliament for a Protestant people" was the boast of its leaders, a place where Catholics and nationalists knew their place and faced discrimination in housing, employment and political representation. The unionist population was urged not to employ Catholics by their political leaders in cahoots with the Orange Order, whose influence ran through all of the policies of state discrimination. Catholics were not to be trusted, not to be employed and not to be given votes or houses. That was the attitude at the heart of the unionist Government, and it was reinforced through their laws. We had the Special Powers Act, internment without trial, the banning of meetings and publications and excessive police force. Those laws made those in charge of apartheid South Africa envious. When Jon Burrows says that nobody on this side would be in the Ulster Unionist Party, he is 100% correct. Spare us the sanctimony and the suggestion that a lawful decision must automatically be a just decision. People in this state secured equality because they challenged laws and injustice. Peaceful protest against bad laws and bad decisions is fundamental to any democracy. The hypocrisy that we have to listen to in the Chamber about those who rightly stood with the Garvaghy Road residents from politicians whose party has a long history of selective respect for the law is extraordinary. Ian Paisley was convicted of unlawful assembly and served time in prison. He ended up as First Minister. Peter Robinson pleaded guilty to unlawful assembly after the Clontibret incursion. I remember that night well, because I remember another loyalist incursion on the same night: loyalists, supported by unionist politicians, openly carried weapons as they marched through my home village of Swatragh in the middle of the night in a similar attempt to intimidate all of us who lived there. Peter Robinson became DUP leader and First Minister. Apparently, context matters when unionist politicians attend protests. Utter hypocrisy. As a North Antrim representative — indeed, as one who was voted into this place, given that two of the four signatories to the motion are from North Antrim but did not receive any votes — I will not allow the history of that constituency to be airbrushed. Ian Paisley and Jim Allister, both North Antrim MPs, built their political careers on the back of division, sectarianism and derogatory, demeaning language about Catholics and nationalists. Both were involved in the mobilisation of Ulster Resistance, an organisation that Jim Allister publicly pledged his support for and led in rallies through Ballymena town. Ulster Resistance imported weaponry that was used across the North, including in many cases in North Antrim, in collusion with the RUC and British state forces to murder Catholics, nationalists and republicans. I encourage all the sanctimonious representatives from North Antrim to read the findings of the Police Ombudsman's recent report on Operation Greenwich. At Harryville in Ballymena, for two years, Catholic families were disgracefully subjected to sectarian abuse and violence as they tried to attend Mass. Davy Tweed, a DUP candidate at the time and, subsequently, a TUV councillor, took part in those protests. The DUP defended the right to protest then. How does that record sit alongside today's lectures on responsible political leadership? Timothy Gaston, as has already been said, has been reported as saying that either the Orange Order gets down the Garvaghy Road or Stormont goes down: what an admission. Public services, government and the needs of his constituents are made conditional on forcing a triumphalist, sectarian parade through a place where it is not wanted. The people of the North need functioning government, Mr Gaston. They deserve better than the ultimatums and sectarian politics of the TUV. All of that general history explains why the Garvaghy Road residents' fears need to be heard and understood. The Drumcree parade is steeped in sectarianism. It is steeped in unionist violence. It is steeped in the triumphalism of the likes of the victory march of the DUP's Ian Paisley and the UUP's David Trimble down the road. It is a parade that cost 21 citizens their lives at the hands of unionist violence. In North Antrim, we know that what happens in Portadown has consequences beyond the Garvaghy Road. We remember Richard, Mark and Jason Quinn, killed when loyalists petrol-bombed their Ballymoney home during the 1998 Drumcree stand-off. Their memory and that of the other 18 people who lost their lives demand that we protect peace. Respect for Orange culture — there are 2,500 parades — must include respect for residents. Tradition cannot confer an unlimited entitlement to impose a parade where it is not welcome regardless of the consequences. The First Minister, whom I am extremely proud of, has a responsibility to serve everyone, and that includes nationalist families and families on the Garvaghy Road. Being First Minister for all cannot mean remaining silent when their dignity and security are threatened. We in Sinn Féin have shown solidarity. We stood with the residents, whose voices deserve to be heard. We are proud of the action that we took. The days of unionist domination are over. The days of the Orange Order calling the shots are over. Catholics, nationalists and republicans are not, as described by Jon Burrows, a cancer. We do not need to be sanitised —
— as suggested by Jim Allister. We are equal citizens. We will not be put in our place. We will continue to stand with the Garvaghy Road community —
— defend equality and build a peaceful future.
There is no going back.

1,116 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

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