Member's statement: Remembrance Day

Member's statement by Ms Paula Bradshaw on 11 November 2024.

MLA

Ms Paula Bradshaw

Party at the time

Alliance Party

Date

11 November 2024

Type

Member's statement

Business

Members' Statements

Heading

Remembrance Day

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 4667089

Read the official Assembly record

Text

My statement is on remembrance, exactly 106 years after the end of World War I. However people choose to remember and reflect, it is important that we do so. We remember the sacrifice of so many during two world wars and other conflicts. We recall also the loss of civilian lives in conflict, and we reflect on the ongoing need to promote peace, democracy and the rule of law. Historians will always dispute what truly led to World War I, and we must be wary of any glorification of it. Nearly all of us have ancestors who fought in the war. Few spoke of it particularly fondly, and many did not speak of it at all. The appalling loss of life and the suffering of so many, combined with the collective trauma, are what we should remember. The tragedy is that the very next generation faced the trauma of global conflict yet again. Within most of our lifetimes, we experienced conflict in our land. Nearly 4,000 people were killed, 10 times that number were injured and, sadly, there absolutely were alternatives. At least we recognised, even if it was too late and after too much suffering, that there is no future in murder and mayhem. We may reflect on those who are always focused on building peace and creating a fair society. We may reflect on those in many other parts of the world where, sadly, murder and mayhem are still the norm. In the Middle East, Ukraine, many parts of sub-Saharan Africa and numerous other places, we see the types of suffering and instability that will create cycles of conflict that are likely to last for generations if no one has the courage to focus on our common humanity and build and lead a peace process.

For all that, we must reflect that, contrary to what we may perceive from the news, globally, we are lucky enough to live in the safest and healthiest period in human history. In those 106 years, global life expectancy has more than doubled, entire diseases have been wiped out, rates of murder and violent crime have plummeted and more people than ever live in a democracy. That is due in many parts to the sacrifice of those who gave their todays for our tomorrows. In this part of the world, we should therefore reflect on the fact that, at this stage in the 21st century, UK and Irish troops as often as not work alongside each other on peacekeeping missions; in fact, the UK contributes almost 7% of the entire UN peacekeeping budget. That work is often overlooked precisely because it does not appear on the news; indeed, it prevents even more places from ending up on the news.

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

Assessment

Not flagged

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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