Member's statement: Ballymena Unrest

Member's statement by Mr Paul Frew on 16 June 2025.

MLA: Mr Paul Frew
Party at the time: Democratic Unionist Party
Date: 16 June 2025
Type: Member's statement
Business: Members' Statements
Heading: Ballymena Unrest
Assembly identifier: Official Report component 5010104

Text

I condemn the violence that was perpetrated in my home town of Ballymena all last week. I am thankful that it has settled down, but I am concerned that my home town is still a tinderbox, as are all the other areas that suffered violence. I thank the deputy First Minister for coming to Ballymena on Wednesday. It was much appreciated. The deputy First Minister met community groups; leaders; voluntary workers; residents of Queen Street, who suffered some of the violence; and residents of Clonavon, who suffered most of the violence in the town last week. She heard harrowing stories of how people were left to defend their homes and property against those who went on the rampage. All violence is wrong, and everybody in the House should be categorical with regard to violence. Violence does not pay. Some people out there think that it does, but what we know for sure is that it comes at an awful cost. There is an awful cost to reputation, but, worse than that, there is a cost through damage to property. Thankfully, this time, there was no loss of life, but it was so close. As I stand here, I am thankful that no one lost their life, but a lot of people lost their home, and a lot of families were disrupted. That must be condemned. Of course, in the coming days, a lot of people will lose their liberty, and that will have ramifications for their life. That is really unfortunate. In fact, it is a tragedy. I thank the deputy First Minister for coming to Ballymena to speak to those people who suffered. All throughout last week, be it on the street, in the Chamber or anywhere else, I made sure that I did not attack any other party, because it was not the time for gotcha politics or politicking. It was the time for representing and assisting people and assisting the police and community groups on the ground. Alas, there were parties that tried to take the opportunity to attack my party in North Antrim, the councillors in North Antrim, the wider party in North Antrim and the party in East Antrim. That is unforgivable. Parties trying to exploit the situation that we experienced last week is unforgivable. There has to be clear thought now as to how we move forward. When the cameras disappear, we need to see the future. I hope that all those parties that tried to slap down the DUP will be productive when it comes to trying to progress issues of real concern in Ballymena and further afield.

435 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: 0.16 (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 (0.79).
Subject area: Sectarianism, hate crime and community relations.
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	0.13	No
Sectarian or communal antagonism	0.04	No
Cultural grievance politics	0.04	No
Dog-whistle messaging	0.09	No
Controversy escalation	0.10	No
Legitimate policy scrutiny	0.11	No
Overall judgement	0.16	At or below not-flagging threshold

Context and attribution (stance)
Option	Probability
No identity-based framing (chosen)	0.79
Reports or questions it	0.00
Criticises or condemns it	0.20
Adopts it	0.01

Subject area (top five)
Subject	Probability
Sectarianism, hate crime and community relations	0.76
No identity-related subject	0.18
Legacy of the Troubles, victims and paramilitarism	0.06
Flags, emblems, symbols, names and memorials	0.00
Parades, bonfires and commemorations	0.00

Assessed 21 October 2026 at 12:48 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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