Debate contribution: Casement Park: British Government Announcement
Debate contribution by Mr David Honeyford on .
- MLA
- Mr David Honeyford
- Party at the time
- Alliance Party
- Date
- 16 September 2024
- Type
- Debate contribution
- Business
- Matter of the Day
- Heading
- Casement Park: British Government Announcement
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 4531679
Read the official Assembly record
Text
It is the start of Good Relations Week, and this is a massive missed opportunity on which we will look back with regret. I have heard Members here talk about the missed opportunity of the Maze/Long Kesh site, and that stadium should have been built. The same people were saying back then that we cannot have that either.
In 2028, it will be the 30th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement. The 25th anniversary was embarrassing enough, when the President of the United States of America came here to try to bring an economic boost to Northern Ireland. At the time, the Assembly was being prevented from doing its job and was not sitting. We did not have the president here for long, only for a morning. When we come to the 30th anniversary, the world's cameras will be on the UK and Ireland, and — guess what? — we will not be there then either. It is absolutely pathetic. I listened to the Member behind me speak. His vision for the future has been mooted in various quarters. It is Groundhog Day. We already know what that vision for the future is: it is the past that we have already lived through. It is neither pretty nor inspiring, and there is absolutely no future in it. It is the past. Here was an opportunity here to break down divisions. I started by saying that it is Good Relations Week. Alliance will always stand up for reconciliation, for a shared society and for moving forward together. Here was an opportunity to bring the community together and to do more than any Together: Building a United Community (T:BUC) programme or any other community programme could ever do to put sport, which is leading the way in all of this, right at its heart and bring people into west Belfast. People from west Belfast accepting Northern Ireland fans into west Belfast would do more for community relations and for breaking down barriers than anything that we could ever legislate for. Sport is leading the way. I have just left the launch of the Ulster Rugby Foundation, which I was hosting. Sport brings together the community and people from every background, including people with special needs and those involved in female sport. It is leading the way, while we are falling behind. If the vision and direction in the Chamber is to celebrate not getting something, that is just mind-blowing. For our economy, it is an embarrassment on the world stage. People who were hoping to invest here will have just seen that we are not that interested. We cannot be that interested in trying to convince people to open up here if we cannot even do it for ourselves. I just do not know. To release a statement on a Friday at 7.10 pm is disgraceful. I also put it on the record, however, that the IFA and Ulster GAA —
— should be congratulated.
493 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: 0.26 (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 (0.77).
- Subject area: Sectarianism, hate crime and community relations.
- 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 | 0.18 | No |
| Sectarian or communal antagonism | 0.03 | No |
| Cultural grievance politics | 0.15 | No |
| Dog-whistle messaging | 0.10 | No |
| Controversy escalation | 0.37 | No |
| Legitimate policy scrutiny | 0.40 | No |
| Overall judgement | 0.26 | At or below not-flagging threshold |
| Option | Probability |
|---|---|
| No identity-based framing (chosen) | 0.77 |
| Reports or questions it | 0.00 |
| Criticises or condemns it | 0.22 |
| Adopts it | 0.01 |
| Subject | Probability |
|---|---|
| Sectarianism, hate crime and community relations | 0.76 |
| Sport (including the GAA), the arts and cultural bodies | 0.22 |
| Legacy of the Troubles, victims and paramilitarism | 0.02 |
| No identity-related subject | 0.00 |
| Flags, emblems, symbols, names and memorials | 0.00 |
Assessed 21 October 2026 at 11:01 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.
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