Topical question AQT 1687/22-27

Topical question by Mrs Diane Dodds on 20 October 2025.

MLA: Mrs Diane Dodds
Party at the time: Democratic Unionist Party
Date: 20 October 2025
Type: Topical question
Assembly reference: AQT 1687/22-27
Business: Oral Answers to Questions
Assembly identifier: Official Report component 5188584

Text

Mrs Dodds asked the First Minister and deputy First Minister, given that, in December 1996, the IRA came into the Royal Belfast Hospital for Sick Children to target her and her husband, Nigel Dodds, whether they consider them to be innocent victims of IRA terrorism.

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

Follow-ups by the same MLA in the Chamber

These were assessed together with this record:

20 October 2025 – Once again, the First Minister cannot condemn the actions of the criminals in the IRA. That is part of the problem…

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: 0.59 (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 (0.38).
Subject area: Legacy of the Troubles, victims and paramilitarism.
The overall probability was moderate at most and none of the culture-war criteria was close to being met.

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	0.34	No
Sectarian or communal antagonism	0.05	No
Cultural grievance politics	0.12	No
Dog-whistle messaging	0.14	No
Controversy escalation	0.40	No
Legitimate policy scrutiny	0.24	No
Overall judgement	0.59	Between thresholds

Context and attribution (stance)
Option	Probability
No identity-based framing (chosen)	0.38
Reports or questions it	0.02
Criticises or condemns it	0.32
Adopts it	0.28

Subject area (top five)
Subject	Probability
Legacy of the Troubles, victims and paramilitarism	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 13:30 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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