Debate contribution: Audit and Re-imaging of Memorials

Debate contribution by Ms Paula Bradshaw on 11 November 2025.

MLA

Ms Paula Bradshaw

Party at the time

Alliance Party

Date

11 November 2025

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Private Members' Business

Heading

Audit and Re-imaging of Memorials

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5349660

Read the official Assembly record

Text

I beg to move

Thank you, Mr Speaker. Honouring our dead is one of the most profound things that we will do as human beings. It speaks to love, vulnerability and our shared capacity for grief. Across cultures and generations, people carve stones, plant trees and light candles. Those are small gestures that say something very big, which is that we value life and memories and that we have compassion. That need to remember is universal, but it carries particular weight here in Northern Ireland for a society that has known far too much loss. Remembrance is not a luxury but essential. It allows us to acknowledge pain, recognise the humanity of others and begin the slow work of reconciliation. The motion seeks to uphold that right — the right to remember — while ensuring that it is exercised in a way that is respectful, lawful and inclusive. We must be honest about the challenges that are in front of us, however. As the Commission on Flags, Identity, Culture and Tradition (FICT) made clear in its 2021 report, memorials are amongst the most sensitive expressions of identity in post-conflict Northern Ireland. The commission recognised the right to remember but warned that, in practice, remembrance too often becomes a source of division rather than reflection. The report's recommendations called for an audit of memorials, a protocol for respectful commemoration and guidance on future memorials, all of which are echoed in the motion. The commission also highlighted where challenges remain. Those challenges include how to handle unauthorised memorials, how to deal with paramilitary imagery and how to ensure that public remembrance does not glorify violence. Those are precisely the issues that the motion seeks to address. Public memorials can powerfully shape the stories that we tell the people around us. When remembrance slips into glorification of organisations, acts of violence or the conflict/Troubles itself, however, it reopens wounds instead of helping them heal. It creates fear, not reflection, and sends a message that some lives matter more than others and that violence is still to be celebrated. Academic research reinforces that point. Studies by Professor Dominic Bryan and Dr Neil Jarman have documented how memorials, flags and murals can function as territorial markers in contested areas. Rather than being static relics of the past, they actively define boundaries and signal exclusion. As Professor Bryan wrote:

“remembrance becomes political when space itself becomes claimed.”

That is why we must find ways to commemorate that are not just about who we are but who we want to be. Public land belongs to all of us, and its use must be shared, lawful and welcoming. Under the Planning Act 2011, any permanent structure, including a memorial, requires express planning permission unless it has an exemption. If it is on public land, it also requires the consent of the landowner, such as the Housing Executive or the local council. Together, those requirements constitute lawful authority. When memorials are erected without that authority, they are, by definition, unauthorised structures. This is not about politics; it is a matter of legality and equality before the law. The Northern Ireland Housing Executive has confirmed that more than 100 memorials are on its land without planning permission, many of which display paramilitary emblems or references to violence. That is not acceptable in 2025. The motion calls for three practical steps: an audit of memorials on public land to establish a clear and transparent record of what exists, where they are, what is contained on the memorials and under what authority they were erected; a re-imaging programme to support communities to look at replacing violent and exclusive imagery with designs that are creative, inclusive, lawful and dignified; and the development of clear guidance in partnership with the various agencies to ensure that future memorials meet planning law and good relations standards. We know from experience that that approach to working with communities works. The Arts Council's Building Peace Through the Arts initiative has proved that contentious murals can be transformed through dialogue and creativity. Over the course of a decade, more than 90 projects involving some 20,000 people across Northern Ireland showed that, when communities are supported rather than dictated to, they can lead the change themselves. I saw that locally when I worked in the Village area of South Belfast: we successfully re-imaged a series of murals with strong local input and ownership. For example, the poppy trail along the Donegall Road honours loss across both world wars and is a shared story of service and sacrifice that unites rather than offends. As I said, at the heart of the motion is community ownership. The slow and patient work of dialogue is, in fact, the quickest route to lasting change. Communities that feel respected will lead transformation. Communities that feel targeted will resist it. Some may say that that risks erasing history or culture. It does not. History and culture live on in our museums, archives, classrooms and family stories. What we are talking about is our shared public space, where children play, neighbours meet and visitors form their first impressions of who we are. We cannot tell our children that peace means leaving the symbols of war or terrorism untouched. We cannot expect reconciliation to flourish if the landscape around us still romanticises violence.

I welcome the opportunity to clarify that. That is exactly what I am talking about. If you go along the Donegall Road from the RAF mural just outside Belfast City Hospital, you will see that there is a series of them. Today is a very important day for many who commemorate the world wars and subsequent wars. This is not about trying to eradicate their history; it is about presenting what happened in a way that is respectful and dignified. There was some criticism of some of the work that we did to re-image murals. One was a huge mural of King William of Orange. Some people asked why public money was used for it. I said, "Well, look, we replaced a mural of paramilitary figures holding guns and wearing balaclavas". The imagery that replaced that may not have been to everybody's taste or reflect their cultural heritage, but this is about the transition process, in which we can have respectful expressions of our cultural heritage or history that do not offend. To move on — and to speak to Mr Brett's comments — we can and should honour bravery, loss and sacrifice, but we must do it in a way that upholds dignity, legality and values of shared future. The 'Good Relations Indicators 2024 Report' found that more than 80% of people in Northern Ireland want shared spaces to be welcoming to all. The Commission for Victims and Survivors, likewise, found strong public support for respectful, community-led remembrance. This is not about removing memory, but it is about re-imaging it with the communities where that is needed. Of course, that work must be done sensitively. Mistakes have been made in the past, such as the removal of Somme plaques by the Housing Executive without consultation. That shows the importance of proper process, engagement and respect. They are all essential if a programme of work such as this is to succeed. If we get it right, Northern Ireland can provide a model for other post-conflict societies, showing that remembrance can become a bridge, not a barrier. We will support the DUP's amendment. We recognise that there are structures there. This is a strange day for the Alliance Party in the Chamber, but we do recognise that there is some really good work going on through the Communities in Transition (CIT) programme and structures. That is probably the best way that that work can be continued. We will not support the UUP amendment because it reframes our motion into a criminal justice issue, and that risks turning what should really be a partnership approach into a punitive one. The law already prohibits the glorification of terrorism. The motion is about managing our shared space constructively and inclusively. It is not about punishment but about partnership; not about erasing the past but about building a shared future. The best way to honour the dead is by creating spaces that the living can share, spaces defined by respect not rivalry, by memories that heal not hurt, by remembrance that unites not divides. That vision is at the heart of the motion and is the vision that the Alliance Party will always support.

1,414 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

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Assessed 21 October 2026 at 13:38 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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