Member's statement: County Fermanagh: IRA Victims
Member's statement by Lord Elliott on .
- MLA
- Lord Elliott
- Party at the time
- Ulster Unionist Party
- Date
- 8 April 2024
- Type
- Member's statement
- Business
- Members' Statements
- Heading
- County Fermanagh: IRA Victims
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 4481014
Read the official Assembly record
Text
I rise today to note two recent events that I attended two weekends apart. They were to remember two significant people in our community who were murdered by the IRA.
Yesterday, we attended events to remember George Saunderson. He was shot and murdered in the primary school of which he was headmaster, 50 years ago, when three gunmen went into Earl of Erne Primary School at Teemore, outside Derrylin. Three IRA gunmen shot him in front of the cooks and the pupils of that school. It was a despicable act. I was pleased that a huge number of people from across the community gathered yesterday to remember the late George Saunderson. He was a figurehead in the community and a retired Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR) officer. He served his country with distinction in the army and fought during the Second World War. To end his life in that way was despicable. Some of his family travelled from Canada to attend the events over the weekend. One of the guns that were used to murder George was sold in America some years later to raise funds for the IRA, and a label was put on it to say that it had been used to murder that school principal who was teaching primary-school children. Two weeks ago, I attended a memorial service for Ronnie Funston. Ronnie was a farmer on the border at Pettigo. At 8 o'clock one morning, IRA people came from across the border and shot him while he was on his tractor, feeding his livestock. His mother found him dying on the tractor. It meant that the family had to sell their farmlands and leave the area totally. That was another despicable act, carried out by cowards in this society. I knew Ronnie personally; I had talked to him just the week before. I quote his brother:
"It is something my family ... have had to live with all this time. It was yet another sectarian murder by that organisation that their apologists have tried to portray as something else. Let's not try to make excuses for them: they were and are a nakedly sectarian organisation that continues to hide behind platitudes and sound bites."
366 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
Assessment
Not flagged on a second assessment, because Jev’s answers did not settle it. The reasons are given below.
- Overall probability that the activity is being used to promote, exploit or escalate an identity-based controversy: 0.40 (flagging needs at least 0.70; at or below 0.30 is not flagged).
- Criteria met: Identity framing (0.60).
- The text criticises or condemns the framing or division (0.50).
- Subject area: Legacy of the Troubles, victims and paramilitarism.
- The answers did not meet either automatic 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.
Second assessment
Jev’s answers did not settle this record, so a second model, claude-opus-5-5, read the same text (without the MLA’s name or party) and gave its reasons on 21 October 2026. How the second assessment works
- Verdict
- Not flagged
- Public interest or divisiveness
- Mainly advances the public interest
Against the published rubric
The statement remembers two men murdered by the IRA in Fermanagh, describing the killings and their effect on families and noting that 'a huge number of people from across the community' attended. Its hostility is directed at a specific paramilitary organisation and its acts, which the rubric treats as criticism of specific conduct rather than attributing blame to a whole community. The quoted brother's words about 'apologists' and an organisation that 'were and are' sectarian carry an edge in the contest over accounts of the Troubles. But this is a bereaved relative's view within a commemoration, not the main thrust of the statement.
Public interest or divisiveness
The statement's main function is to commemorate victims and put on record the human cost of specific murders, which is legitimate representation of constituents and remembrance. It does not portray any community as a threat, and it stresses cross-community attendance at the events. The closing quotation touches on contested narratives of the past, but it is subordinate to the act of remembrance.
Jev’s structured answers
| Question | Probability | Met? |
|---|---|---|
| Identity framing | 0.60 | Yes |
| Sectarian or communal antagonism | 0.13 | No |
| Cultural grievance politics | 0.07 | No |
| Dog-whistle messaging | 0.25 | No |
| Controversy escalation | 0.20 | No |
| Legitimate policy scrutiny | 0.06 | No |
| Overall judgement | 0.40 | Between thresholds |
| Option | Probability |
|---|---|
| No identity-based framing | 0.13 |
| Reports or questions it | 0.00 |
| Criticises or condemns it (chosen) | 0.50 |
| Adopts it | 0.37 |
| Subject | Probability |
|---|---|
| Legacy of the Troubles, victims and paramilitarism | 0.61 |
| Sectarianism, hate crime and community relations | 0.39 |
| No identity-related subject | 0.00 |
| Flags, emblems, symbols, names and memorials | 0.00 |
| Parades, bonfires and commemorations | 0.00 |
Assessed 21 October 2026 at 01:20 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.
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