Member's statement: Remembrance Day

Member's statement by Mr Timothy Gaston on 12 November 2024.

MLA

Mr Timothy Gaston

Party at the time

Traditional Unionist Voice

Date

12 November 2024

Type

Member's statement

Business

Members' Statements

Heading

Remembrance Day

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 4658248

Read the official Assembly record

Text

Yesterday, we remembered the sacrifice for freedom in two world wars and the many who, in spite of the absence of conscription, served with distinction on the battlefields of Europe, Africa and Asia. We remembered the fact that the rights to freedom of speech, to free elections and to freedom of religion had to be earned by the blood, sweat and tears of a former generation. In 2024, we particularly remember the events of 1944, which was a pivotal year in world history. We remember the invasion on D-Day, the bravery of the men involved in the ultimately disastrous Operation Market Garden and the revelation of the true horror of the Holocaust as the Nazi death camps were revealed: the starkest evidence that the Allies were correct to take the fight to the evil Nazi regime. Sadly, for many, Remembrance Day also reminds them of more recent events, and there is perhaps nowhere where that is more common than in Northern Ireland.

Many have commented favourably on the acts of the First Minister in recent days. Some have even suggested that she deserves praise. However, I recall the events of 8 November 1987 and the memorable, chilling words of one Fermanagh man who had a microphone thrust in front of him and was asked for comment:

"At the time we went to remember our dead; we didn't expect to be digging them out."

Until such times as the First Minister and her party can tell what they know about the events that filled 12 graves in Fermanagh — the day that shattered so many others right across Northern Ireland — I will treat their attendance at remembrance events with the contempt that it deserves.

Yesterday, as well as thinking of two world wars, it was appropriate that we remember Dermot Hurley and Walter Moore, two RUC officers, one of them a fluent Irish speaker, who were murdered by the IRA on 11 November 1971. I think of Winston Churchill McCaughey, an off-duty UDR soldier shot by the IRA beside his car outside his home in Kilrea, leaving his eight-year-old son to seek help from a passing motorist on Remembrance Day 1976. I recall Patrick Shields, a Catholic father of 10, murdered in an IRA bombing on 11 November 1977, because it decided to bomb the offices of a newspaper that had been critical of the IRA. I remember Owen McQuade, a soldier shot outside Altnagelvin Hospital while waiting for a colleague whose wife was in the maternity ward on Remembrance Day in 1980. I think of Cecil Graham, who died on 11 November 1981, two days after the IRA shot him as he visited his wife and five-week-old baby. There was always an alternative —

— to the murders of those men and all who perished at the hands of the IRA.

472 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

Flagged Legacy of the Troubles, victims and paramilitarism

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

Flagged

Public interest or divisiveness

Mixed

Against the published rubric

Much of the statement is commemoration of the world wars and of named victims of IRA killings on Remembrance Day. It deliberately includes a Catholic victim and an RUC officer who was 'a fluent Irish speaker', so it does not blame a whole community. Its pivot, however, uses Remembrance to reject a gesture by the First Minister and her party, saying their 'attendance at remembrance events' will be treated 'with the contempt that it deserves'. This contests a political tradition's place at a commemoration, which is a recognised legacy flashpoint, rather than raising any policy or truth-recovery mechanism.

Public interest or divisiveness

Remembering victims and calling for the truth about the Enniskillen bombing has genuine public value, and the account of the victims is not hostile to any community. But the statement's evident function is to rebuff a cross-community act of remembrance and keep the argument over who may legitimately take part in commemoration going. That deepens division rather than advancing any practical outcome, so both elements are substantial.

Jev’s structured answers

Assessed 21 October 2026 at 11:32 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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