Debate contribution: Audit and Re-imaging of Memorials

Debate contribution by Mrs Ciara Ferguson on 11 November 2025.

MLA

Mrs Ciara Ferguson

Party at the time

Sinn Féin

Date

11 November 2025

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Private Members' Business

Heading

Audit and Re-imaging of Memorials

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5349703

Read the official Assembly record

Text

All people should have the right to remember their dead in a respectful, sensitive and dignified manner. I welcome the recognition of that fundamental point in the motion. The importance of providing places where individuals, families and communities can gather to reflect, reminisce and remember their loved ones, their history and their stories should not be undermined. As outlined in the Commission on Flags, Identity, Culture and Tradition report:

"Remembering the dead is a human and sensitive process that all communities have in common."

Equality should be central to our vision for society: a society underpinned by fairness and respect. That should also be a society where we are able to deal with difference in a positive and constructive manner; demonstrate openness; and show maturity and respect to all people regardless of any identity factors. In truth, as outlined by the Ulster University lecturer Eilish Rooney:

"Social identity discourses in diverse conflicted societies are integral to local and global histories of nation-state formation and the acquisition of power over political and material resources involved."

To that end, I support the view that we should not advocate removing existing places that provide a sense of acknowledgement or peaceful closure for communities who have experienced significant ramifications of our recent conflict. However, we should work to deliver community cohesion, inclusion and equality. We support the adoption of a day of reflection, as referenced in the FICT report, to be held on 21 June each year. We also emphasise the need for an audit of all memorials across the Six Counties rather than a selective audit that focuses on some political identities whilst ignoring others. Reconciliation must reflect and recognise equally the experience of all in our society. There should be a particular focus on reflecting the stories of women, which are often invisible or largely unexamined in our history. The steps by Belfast City Council in recent years to erect statues in honour of Mary Ann McCracken and Winifred Carney are welcome attempts to address that imbalance. There is no denying that, if an audit were carried out on memorials, it would reveal that there is a disproportionate number of unionist and state memorials in the form of cenotaphs, statues and plaques. Many of those monuments were erected during the time of an inbuilt unionist majority that was created as a result of partition, when consensus on such memorials was not reached or even sought. Their presence should be examined in our changed political dynamics, which have seen the unionist majority come to an end in successive elections and the election of a nationalist First Minister. I do not want to labour the point, but I emphasise the fact that there is room in both those realities to apply a concept of additionality and work collectively to provide a truly shared space for all our citizens. It is notable that the motion is silent on the imagery and actions of British state forces and on the pain and misery that their actions inflicted on many in our society. That is a glaring omission in a conversation such as this. We must instead create opportunities for all sections of society to tell their story in their own words and have those reflected to provide a more accurate perspective. Let us work collectively to listen to all others and their stories without judgement; recognise different rationales and the pain that people carry; and, fundamentally, deliver a real process of reconciliation and build a better future for all.

583 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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