Debate contribution: Car Bomb at Dunmurry Police Station
Debate contribution by Miss Deirdre Hargey on .
- MLA
- Miss Deirdre Hargey
- Party at the time
- Sinn Féin
- Date
- 27 April 2026
- Type
- Debate contribution
- Business
- Matter of the Day
- Heading
- Car Bomb at Dunmurry Police Station
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 5508054
Read the official Assembly record
Text
I concur with what my colleague has said. Obviously, what happened in Dunmurry at the weekend is not reflective or representative of the wider community there. Indeed, we know exactly what this is like because one of our offices was attacked with a viable device in recent months. Sinn Féin has been the focus of such actions as well, yet I have not heard one other person mention that. We understand completely what that is like. Our Sinn Féin reps were out on the ground over the weekend, as Órlaithí said, engaging with the police. The police, along with other first responders, responded to the incident. They rapped doors and evacuated many people, including young children. We have been out engaging with that community, which, I am sure, is shaken up, along with the driver whose car was hijacked. The attackers do not represent the wider community; a community that is looking forward, not back. That is what we have here: sections within the community. It is not unique to one community. We can see it with loyalists and other groups as well. There are those in the community and, indeed, some in the Chamber who want to drag us backwards. They want to go back to days that, thankfully, were 28 years ago. It is in moments such as this that we have to refocus our energy and look forward. We should not allow those outside or inside the Chamber to drag us back. We could all look across the Chamber and try to score points. What about Ulster Resistance and the red berets? Members of other parties in the Chamber put on the red beret. If you are going to look at things in history, look at the facts: the red berets and the creation of a sectarian state that had inbuilt discrimination in jobs and housing. That is the legacy of conflict that we have come from. There is a legacy of torture. My family member was tortured by the RUC's Special Branch, and there were plastic bullets and a shoot-to-kill policy. We are 28 years after the Good Friday Agreement. My family and the community that I come from were impacted on by conflict, killings, torture and the sectarian discrimination that was built into the statelet that was formed here over 100 years ago.
However, we signed up to the Good Friday Agreement 28 years ago. We signed up —
It is the Good Friday Agreement, which you did not sign up to. We signed up to the Good Friday Agreement —
—
— because we believe in bringing society forward and moving forward as a society under the terms of that agreement. Sinn Féin believes in power-sharing. Others may not or do not see us as partners —
— but we believe in power-sharing and in building this society.
474 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
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