Member's statement: Sectarian and Racist Attacks in North Belfast
Member's statement by Ms Carál Ní Chuilín on .
- MLA
- Ms Carál Ní Chuilín
- Party at the time
- Sinn Féin
- Date
- 8 September 2025
- Type
- Member's statement
- Business
- Members' Statements
- Heading
- Sectarian and Racist Attacks in North Belfast
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 5067953
Read the official Assembly record
Text
Members will be aware of a number of sectarian and racist attacks in the lower Oldpark area of north Belfast before the recess in May of last year. As recently as last week, residents were subjected to those horrifying attacks again. The terrified victims in the middle of all that need to hear our joint condemnation. I thank Nuala McAllister, one of the MLAs for North Belfast, and Jordan Doran, a DUP councillor, for attending a multi-agency meeting last week that my colleague John Finucane called. That was an opportunity for everyone there to call out sectarianism and racism. Today, I wish that we all stand together and call for that collective condemnation. In 2025, we are dealing with families who are barricading themselves behind their front and back doors in the evening, and that is completely unacceptable.
Those families, and their extended families, are not sleeping. They are terrified. Their mental health is under massive pressure. I once again call out those sectarian and racist attacks without equivocation. No ifs, ands or buts: they need to stop. My final appeal is for individuals who go to the media without talking to families or having concern for the wider community please to stop. That, too, is causing stress.
208 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: 0.08 (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 (0.97).
- 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
| Question | Probability | Met? |
|---|---|---|
| Identity framing | 0.25 | No |
| Sectarian or communal antagonism | 0.03 | No |
| Cultural grievance politics | 0.06 | No |
| Dog-whistle messaging | 0.04 | No |
| Controversy escalation | 0.07 | No |
| Legitimate policy scrutiny | 0.38 | No |
| Overall judgement | 0.08 | At or below not-flagging threshold |
| Option | Probability |
|---|---|
| No identity-based framing | 0.03 |
| Reports or questions it | 0.00 |
| Criticises or condemns it (chosen) | 0.97 |
| Adopts it | 0.00 |
| Subject | Probability |
|---|---|
| Sectarianism, hate crime and community relations | 1.00 |
| No identity-related subject | 0.00 |
| 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 12:56 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.
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