Member's statement: Braid United Football Club
Member's statement by Mr Paul Frew on .
- MLA
- Mr Paul Frew
- Party at the time
- Democratic Unionist Party
- Date
- 2 June 2025
- Type
- Member's statement
- Business
- Members' Statements
- Heading
- Braid United Football Club
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 4980697
Read the official Assembly record
Text
I wish to congratulate a local football team. Braid United Football Club is based in the village of Broughshane, but its catchment area goes right through the picturesque Braid valley and further afield. Braid United won the final against Larne's Ruby's Rovers Football Club, picking up the Tullyglass Residence Cup to win promotion to the first division of the Firmus Energy Ballymena Saturday morning league. The league takes in teams from Ballymena and every village and hamlet between Ballymoney, Larne and Antrim. It is a prestigious league that does sterling work. I pay tribute not only to Braid United Football Club for winning promotion to the first division but to the league itself and all the volunteers and others who make the three football leagues a success every Saturday morning. There are even midweek matches in the summer months. It is important that our young people play sports, no matter what that sport is: you can learn so much about life on the field of play. Therefore, the dedicated volunteers who make the league happen should be encouraged, valued and honoured in good fashion for getting our young people out to train two nights a week and play a match on Saturday mornings. That takes dedication. Credit goes to the Firmus Energy Ballymena Saturday morning league and to Braid United Football Club, which is just one of the clubs in the three divisions and has found success this year. The dedication, training and tactics of the managerial team have paid off, and the team has won promotion to the first division. I wish them all the best in the season ahead.
271 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: 0.02 (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 (1.00).
- Subject area: Sport (including the GAA), the arts and cultural bodies.
- 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 | 0.02 | No |
| Sectarian or communal antagonism | 0.01 | No |
| Cultural grievance politics | 0.02 | No |
| Dog-whistle messaging | 0.01 | No |
| Controversy escalation | 0.02 | No |
| Legitimate policy scrutiny | 0.04 | No |
| Overall judgement | 0.02 | At or below not-flagging threshold |
| Option | Probability |
|---|---|
| No identity-based framing (chosen) | 1.00 |
| Reports or questions it | 0.00 |
| Criticises or condemns it | 0.00 |
| Adopts it | 0.00 |
| Subject | Probability |
|---|---|
| Sport (including the GAA), the arts and cultural bodies | 0.84 |
| No identity-related subject | 0.16 |
| Flags, emblems, symbols, names and memorials | 0.00 |
| Parades, bonfires and commemorations | 0.00 |
| Irish language, Ulster-Scots and language policy | 0.00 |
Assessed 21 October 2026 at 12:40 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.
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