Member's statement: St Mary's Primary School, Fivemiletown
Member's statement by Mr Colm Gildernew on .
- MLA
- Mr Colm Gildernew
- Party at the time
- Sinn Féin
- Date
- 30 April 2024
- Type
- Member's statement
- Business
- Members' Statements
- Heading
- St Mary's Primary School, Fivemiletown
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 4486739
Read the official Assembly record
Text
I will pick up, geographically, from where my colleague Tom Elliott was in his statement — the village of Fivemiletown in south Tyrone — to acknowledge another fantastic achievement in the shape of St Mary's Primary School. The school has been shortlisted for the award for best community campaign at the Sheila McKechnie awards, which will take place in London on 15 May. A short time ago, St Mary's faced the threat of closure, but under the excellent leadership of Mairaid Kelly of the board of governors and Brian McCloskey, the principal, the entire school community and that of Fivemiletown, including businesses and sports clubs — I acknowledge Deborah Erskine and Tom Elliott's work on this too — rallied around what is an excellent school with excellent educational outcomes. It is a growing, thriving school in a growing, thriving community. People in the community recognised its value and mounted and fought a campaign to save their school. The Sheila McKechnie awards celebrate the best campaigns and campaigners, with a focus on those who have made change happen in their communities. With patrons including broadcaster Jon Snow, the Sheila McKechnie Foundation was established in 2005 to support and recognise campaigners and to encourage social change through civic action. That makes the school an excellent nominee for the award, given the social change that it has brought about through civic and community action. I acknowledge its work. It was an absolute privilege to be part of the campaign, which was positive and inspiring throughout. I wish the entire school community all the best in London on 15 May, and I hope that it wins the award.
274 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: 0.02 (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).
- No identity-based framing was identified (1.00).
- 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 | 0.04 | No |
| Sectarian or communal antagonism | 0.01 | No |
| Cultural grievance politics | 0.02 | No |
| Dog-whistle messaging | 0.01 | No |
| Controversy escalation | 0.02 | No |
| Legitimate policy scrutiny | 0.08 | No |
| Overall judgement | 0.02 | At or below not-flagging threshold |
| Option | Probability |
|---|---|
| No identity-based framing (chosen) | 1.00 |
| Reports or questions it | 0.00 |
| Criticises or condemns it | 0.00 |
| Adopts it | 0.00 |
| Subject | Probability |
|---|---|
| No identity-related subject | 0.55 |
| Education structures, integration and community division | 0.37 |
| Religion and belief (including people of no religion), churches, faith communities and religious prejudice (including antisemitism and anti-Muslim prejudice) | 0.07 |
| Another identity-related subject | 0.01 |
| Flags, emblems, symbols, names and memorials | 0.00 |
Assessed 21 October 2026 at 10:01 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.
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