Member's statement: Droppin’ Well Bomb: Anniversary

Member's statement by Mr Alan Robinson on 9 December 2024.

MLA: Mr Alan Robinson
Party at the time: Democratic Unionist Party
Date: 9 December 2024
Type: Member's statement
Business: Members' Statements
Heading: Droppin’ Well Bomb: Anniversary
Assembly identifier: Official Report component 4697900

Text

Yesterday afternoon, I joined the families and friends of the deceased and injured to mark the 42nd anniversary of the Droppin' Well terrorist massacre. On the evening of 6 December 1982, a neighbour arrived at our house, three miles from Ballykelly. I was 10 years old. Our neighbour said that there were reports of a bomb explosion in Ballykelly at the Droppin' Well bar. In the background, we began to hear the wail of sirens. My father went into panic mode, as his brother worked in the bar as a DJ. He frantically made calls, only to learn that his brother, my uncle, had been taken unwell and was in bed, sick. Luck was on our family's side that night, but, for many others, a horror was unfolding that would change their lives forever.
That night, cowards had walked into the Ballykelly bar and left a deadly device that brought the ceiling down on young people out having a dance and a drink at Christmastime. As a result, 17 were killed, and many more were injured, some with terrible, lifelong injuries. The bombing was a pointless act of evil republican terrorist violence that served no purpose other than to rob families of loved ones and to remove good and decent human beings from this world. It traumatised multiple families and left an indelible mark on the brave members of the emergency services who had to attend to the dead and the injured. Rather than divide the Ballykelly people, however, it brought them together, and today the community lives cheek by jowl, united in condemnation of terrorism. I express my sincere thanks to the Cheshire Regiment Association, which facilitates that solemn annual event at Tamlaghtfinlagan in Ballykelly. Every year, we stand shoulder to shoulder with families and those brave former soldiers to comfort them, thank them and show them that we still care after the passing of all those years. I say this to young people who romanticise terrorism: they were no defenders who carried out that atrocity; they were no heroes; and they were no soldiers of war. They were and are evil cowards who achieved nothing but to dish up hurt, pain and death. Terrorism cannot win. It has not won, and it must not win.

377 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: 0.15 (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).
The text criticises or condemns the framing or division (0.54).
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	0.30	No
Sectarian or communal antagonism	0.10	No
Cultural grievance politics	0.05	No
Dog-whistle messaging	0.16	No
Controversy escalation	0.13	No
Legitimate policy scrutiny	0.05	No
Overall judgement	0.15	At or below not-flagging threshold

Context and attribution (stance)
Option	Probability
No identity-based framing	0.36
Reports or questions it	0.00
Criticises or condemns it (chosen)	0.54
Adopts it	0.10

Subject area (top five)
Subject	Probability
Legacy of the Troubles, victims and paramilitarism	0.95
Sectarianism, hate crime and community relations	0.05
No identity-related subject	0.00
Flags, emblems, symbols, names and memorials	0.00
Parades, bonfires and commemorations	0.00

Assessed 21 October 2026 at 01:20 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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