Member's statement: Gaelic Games: South and East Belfast
Member's statement by Mr Matthew O'Toole on .
- MLA
- Mr Matthew O'Toole
- Party at the time
- Social Democratic and Labour Party
- Date
- 9 February 2026
- Type
- Member's statement
- Business
- Members' Statements
- Heading
- Gaelic Games: South and East Belfast
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 5369015
Read the official Assembly record
Text
I often stand up to hold the Executive to account and be quite strong and angry about their poor performance, but today I celebrate amazing performance by two schools, one of which is in my constituency. The other is outside my constituency, in east Belfast, close to here, but it has many of my constituents' children attending it. There were two amazing victories: one by Aquinas Diocesan Grammar School in the MacLarnon Cup last Thursday night at the Dub and the other by Our Lady and St Patrick's College girls, who beat St Mary's Magherafelt in the Ulster Ladies post-primary schools (PPS) final. Those were an extraordinary couple of performances by two great schools and are a testament to huge effort by the coaching staff, the players and the whole school communities, who got behind them to support them. It is also a testament to the growth of Gaelic games in south and east Belfast. South-east Belfast has two of the fastest-growing clubs, Bredagh GAC and Carryduff GAC, and we have St Brigids GAC, which is another fast-growing and successful club. Players from all those clubs were represented in both victorious teams, as was East Belfast GAA, which has set itself up in the last five or six years and been an extraordinary cross-community success. It has brought people from all backgrounds and all parts of the world into the GAA in east Belfast, and it has built something new in that part of the city with resilience and optimism.
I am hugely proud of Aquinas Diocesan Grammar School and the girls from Our Lady and St Patrick's College. It is a testament to the growth of Gaelic games in the south and east of the city but also to those two great schools and their ability to deliver hugely positive outcomes for those sports teams and create memories for the entire school communities. I remember when my school — going back a long way to my school days, more than 20 years ago — won the MacLarnon Cup. The final was at Casement Park, more than a decade before it became disused. It would be great if Belfast schools and those from further afield in the province could have schools' cup final matches, such as the MacRory Cup and MacLarnon Cup finals, at Casement Park and enjoy the atmosphere of a newly rebuilt stadium. In celebrating the amazing success of Aquinas Diocesan Grammar School and Our Lady and St Patrick's College, I want to see future schools from across Belfast lift their GAA trophies in a newly rebuilt Casement Park. I hope that that happens sooner rather than later.
440 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: 0.04 (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 (1.00).
- Subject area: Sport (including the GAA), the arts and cultural bodies.
- 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 | 0.07 | No |
| Sectarian or communal antagonism | 0.01 | No |
| Cultural grievance politics | 0.04 | No |
| Dog-whistle messaging | 0.02 | No |
| Controversy escalation | 0.04 | No |
| Legitimate policy scrutiny | 0.13 | No |
| Overall judgement | 0.04 | At or below not-flagging threshold |
| Option | Probability |
|---|---|
| No identity-based framing (chosen) | 1.00 |
| Reports or questions it | 0.00 |
| Criticises or condemns it | 0.00 |
| Adopts it | 0.00 |
| Subject | Probability |
|---|---|
| Sport (including the GAA), the arts and cultural bodies | 0.91 |
| Sectarianism, hate crime and community relations | 0.06 |
| Religion and belief (including people of no religion), churches, faith communities and religious prejudice (including antisemitism and anti-Muslim prejudice) | 0.02 |
| Immigration, asylum, race, ethnicity and Travellers | 0.01 |
| No identity-related subject | 0.00 |
Assessed 21 October 2026 at 14:31 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.
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