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A number of MLA's spent an incredible three and a half hours at the Stormont Assembly last night trying to exclude Newry and Armagh MLA, Liz Kimmins from office along with three other Sinn Fein Ministers.
Ultimately it was doomed to failure regardless of numbers as a cross community majority would have been needed and that would not have happened.
Thirty MLA's signed motions to exclude the First Minister along with Ministers of Finance, Economy and Infrastructure from Office "under Section 30 of the Northern Ireland Act 1998". It follows on from the two week Garvaghy Road / Drumcree stand-off between Portadown Orangemen, who wanted to parade down the Garvaghy Road after a 28 year gap, and residents who didn't want them to march down. The First Minister and Sinn Fein MLA's had unapologetically joined the protesters on the Garvaghy Road during the stand-off. A High Court case had originally banned the parade but this had been overturned later that same night. On Friday night past, 8 October the NI Secretary of State, Chris Bryant banned the Portadown Orangemen from marching down the Garvaghy Road.
The motions put forward by Timothy Gaston MLA called for the Ministers exclusions stating that they no longer enjoyed the confidence of the Assembly by their participation in the "unlawful protest on the Garvaghy Road on 27 September 2026 that prevented a permitted parade from proceeding"
What followed was an incredibly heated debate along predictable party lines. In his introductory remarks Gaston said: "On one side stood men who had spent almost three decades complying with determinations that were, they believed, fundamentally unjust." adding "On the other side stood those who acted as though the law did not apply to them."
No going back
Defending her decision to go to the Garvaghy Road, Infrastructure Minister Liz Kimmins MLA called Jamie Bryson who was representing the Orange Order in the Courts an "unelected mouthpiece" adding "He has been stringing factions of the DUP along, not only in an effort to divide our society but dividing unionism in his wake. Let me say this, however: despite the vitriol that is being spouted and the reprehensible attempts to drag our communities backwards and revisit some of the most harrowing days of our past on the people of the Garvaghy Road, we have also seen the very best of our communities.
"People who are Catholic, Protestant, unionist, nationalist and other all came together with one unified voice and said, "No going back; not now, not ever". People stood in person and in spirit with the residents of the Garvaghy Road around the clock for almost two weeks, and that support continues to grow, not just across Ireland but across the world."
Minister Kimmins added: "Those who sought to rip open that wound and rewind the clock in an attempt to assert the supremacy and domination that they feel they are entitled to are in the minority. Those who hark back to the past because they fear the future do not represent anyone but themselves. They would rather inflict pain and suffering and demonise the Garvaghy Road community than work with others for the benefit of all our children and grandchildren. Let me say this: not on our watch. I and my colleagues will always stand up for what is right. I am proud to have stood in solidarity with the residents of the Garvaghy Road and to have seen the leadership that my colleagues showed over past weeks, because that is not appearing from unionism."
She recalled as a 10 year old hearing about the deaths of the Quinn Children. "I will not stand idly by and allow any community to be plunged back into that fear and anxiety, not least those who still bear the scars and trauma of that horrendous period. The people of the Garvaghy Road community did not ask for this; it was foisted upon them.
"What Jamie Bryson, Carla Lockhart and the Orange Order seem to have forgotten is that they are a strong, resilient and proud community who are determined to ensure that they will never be second-class citizens. The thousands of people who afforded them their support also sent that message loud and clear."
Foreboding atmosphere
Also speaking on the motion MLA Justin McNulty spoke of his sense of disbelief and trepidation when late at night the High Court overturned a ruling to stop the march. "When we arrived on the Garvaghy Road at about half past midnight, I experienced the foreboding atmosphere that was thick in the air, and I was taken aback by the look of determined and dignified defiance that I saw in the eyes of every one of the residents. Despite their fear, they stood resolute and determined to ensure that their children and grandchildren would not have to live through what they lived through."
He added: "I was proud to stand side by side with the residents of the Garvaghy Road. Sometimes, the right thing to do is to stand your ground. After nearly two weeks, the British Secretary of State finally moved to ban the march, and we all breathed a collective sigh of relief that good sense had prevailed and that the heightened tension had been calmed."
McNulty spoke of the debate as a distraction from the real issues faced and said the real no confidence vote should be for the Assembly "failing to step in and protect maternity services at Daisy Hill Hospital and failing to ensure that expectant mothers do not face uncertainty and anguish over whether they will be able to give birth in their local hospital or be forced to travel bad roads for an hour or more while in labour."
He concluded: "The real metric by which the First Minister and all Ministers here should be measured is their willingness and ability to reach across divides, to work together to save and to properly resource and fund services, including vital healthcare services that mothers and babies rely on in Newry, south Armagh and south Down."
Arrogance on display
South Down MLA Diane Forsythe said: "Today, the sheer lack of self-awareness and arrogance on display has been absolutely outrageous. There has been not a single reflection on the words of the motion or the Pledge of Office; no reference to the rule of law; no justification and no explanation of any of it. Sinn Féin Members said that they would not be second-class citizens, but it is OK for us to be second-class citizens with two-tier policing and two-tier court systems.
"What about the attempts to bully and terrorise Carla Lockhart, Jonny Buckley and Diane Dodds? They were absolutely outrageous. They treated them like second-class citizens. They tried to bully them, but they could not do it. They have now continued with an absolute slaughter of their characters. It is outrageous."
She added: "Liz Kimmins referred to the leaders of unionism as unelected mouthpieces. It should not be lost on anyone that the leaders of nationalism - the unelected mouthpieces who are louder and clearer than everyone in this place - are in Connolly House and are dissident republicans. Look at yourselves. Look at your own. Look at your own "
Retraumatised
South Down MLA, Cathy Mason said: "The people of the Garvaghy Road have been retraumatised: forced, 28 years on, back to a place of fear, pain and uncertainty that they thought they would never face again. That pain has reached far beyond their community, reopening wounds across the North, across Ireland and resonating with people across the world. Now that the sectarian parade has, rightly, been stopped and the residents of the Garvaghy Road have finally been heard, what does political unionism do next? It is so clearly on the wrong side of the issue that all that it can do is turn around and attack some of those who stood with that community. Political unionism is now in such a tailspin that it does not know where it is going or who exactly is calling the shots. Is Gavin Robinson leading the DUP, or is the DUP following whomever shouts the loudest that day and allowing the likes of Jamie Bryson to dictate its political agenda?"
Obscene lack of self-awareness
South Down MLA, Sinead Ennis added: It really takes an obscene lack of self-awareness for the so-called leaders of political unionism in the Assembly to attempt to exclude four democratically elected Sinn Féin Ministers when they have not one vote between them. For Emma Little-Pengelly, who has no votes, Jon Burrows, who has no votes, and Timothy Gaston, who has - you guessed it - no votes to have the absolute brass neck to suggest that Sinn Féin Ministers with a combined mandate of 34,921 votes do not enjoy the confidence of people is farcical in the extreme."
She added: "Another bizarre twist to the debacle and a ploy straight out of the Trump playbook is to accuse your opponent of that which you are doing yourself. The DUP has convinced itself that Sinn Féin started the dispute in a clandestine attempt to goad it into collapsing the Assembly and the Executive. Sinn Féin did not reopen the Drumcree dispute. Sinn Féin did not ask for 28 years of peace to be threatened. Sinn Féin did not make the Orange Order apply year after year to force its sectarian hate march through a community that does not want it. The ones who are doing the goading are the Orange Order; extreme loyalist elements; and people inside and outside the Chamber, including unelected mouthpieces, who do not want peace and are afraid of the future. "
The total number of votes for the motion to exclude Liz Kimmins MLA from her office failed by 33 for and 36 against.
