Member's statement: Anniversaries: John Arthur Maddocks and Alistair Slater

Member's statement by Mrs Deborah Erskine on 2 December 2024.

MLA: Mrs Deborah Erskine
Party at the time: Democratic Unionist Party
Date: 2 December 2024
Type: Member's statement
Business: Members' Statements
Heading: Anniversaries: John Arthur Maddocks and Alistair Slater
Assembly identifier: Official Report component 4686390

Text

Today I remember two brave and valiant men on the anniversary of their murders. I remember Warrant Officer 2 John Arthur Maddocks, Royal Army Ordnance Corps. He was 32 when he was killed by Provisional IRA terrorists who planted a bomb in a milk churn 50 years ago today. His murder took place at Gortmullen, Derrylin. Forty years ago today, Sergeant Alistair Slater from First Battalion, Parachute Regiment and 22 Special Air Service was murdered by Provisional IRA terrorists at Drumrush, Kesh. Yesterday, I attended the 40th anniversary service to dedicate a memorial plaque for Sergeant Alistair Slater at Tubrid Church of Ireland, Kesh. Whilst I was not alive at the time of the murder, it was a period of deep reflection for my family. My Granny Armstrong, who lives with Alzheimer's, can still recall that night, so deeply ingrained is it in her memory, because the incident happened outside the Armstrong family home. The bomb planted by the IRA could have killed many that night. Police officers on duty were spared being murdered as a four-man terror unit from the IRA callously carried out its act of mayhem and terror. They had been attempting to attack the RUC car with a landmine. Inside a family home, a stone's throw away, my Granny Armstrong was putting to bed my two elderly and unwell great-grandparents. Fifteen minutes later, shots rang out across the area. Yesterday, I spoke to many locals at the service who recalled that moment.
On that cold, foggy, December night, the windows of homes nearby were left open to ensure minimal blast damage. Alistair was 28 years old, serving with the SAS that night. He was out on patrol, keeping my family and the Kesh community out of harm's way — totally different from the actions of the IRA terrorists that night. One thousand pounds of explosives were recovered, and countless RUC and civilian lives were saved. Such was his bravery that he was awarded posthumously the Military Medal for his role that night. A line from his obituary is as poignant today as it was then:
"The loss of Al, however, was a bitterly high price for us to pay."
Those are the untold stories of what happened during our dark days. Too many innocent lives were a price too high to pay. Many young lives, such as the lives of those two young men, were stolen. There was always an alternative to the bomb and the bullet. We will remember them.

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

Assessment

Not flagged

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: 0.18 (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 (0.65).
Subject area: Legacy of the Troubles, victims and paramilitarism.
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

Probability that each statement is true of this text (0 = no, 1 = yes). A criterion counts as met at 0.60 or above.
Question	Probability	Met?
Identity framing	0.23	No
Sectarian or communal antagonism	0.08	No
Cultural grievance politics	0.05	No
Dog-whistle messaging	0.10	No
Controversy escalation	0.15	No
Legitimate policy scrutiny	0.04	No
Overall judgement	0.18	At or below not-flagging threshold

Context and attribution (stance)
Option	Probability
No identity-based framing (chosen)	0.65
Reports or questions it	0.00
Criticises or condemns it	0.30
Adopts it	0.05

Subject area (top five)
Subject	Probability
Legacy of the Troubles, victims and paramilitarism	0.96
Sectarianism, hate crime and community relations	0.02
No identity-related subject	0.01
Religion and belief (including people of no religion), churches, faith communities and religious prejudice (including antisemitism and anti-Muslim prejudice)	0.01
Flags, emblems, symbols, names and memorials	0.00

Assessed 21 October 2026 at 11:35 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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