Ivan Little on the sense of loss in city of Derry
As people continue to pay tribute to former SDLP leader, calls grow for the Foyle Peace Bridge to be renamed in his honour
The town that John Hume loved so well, in song and in his heart, showed the feeling was mutual yesterday as people in his native Derry hailed their colossus of change amid calls for the city’s peace bridge to be renamed in his honour.
As Derry prepared to say an emotional farewell to the 83-year-old Nobel Peace Prize winner at his funeral later today, hundreds of people defied the unrelenting rain and fears over Covid-19 to sign three books of condolence in the socially distanced Guildhall, where the veteran politician celebrated some of his most notable electoral successes.
Yesterday the sense of loss across the city was all-encompassing, but there were also expressions of thanks for a life well-lived by a man who not only helped to bring peace to Northern Ireland, but also single-handedly breathed new life into Derry after it was brought to its knees by the Troubles.
And it was also recalled that Mr Hume even played a part in reviving the fortunes of the city’s football club by bringing Barcelona — Ronaldinho et al — to The Brandywell.
Even more bizarrely, another string to his eclectic bow that was remembered in Derry yesterday was the fact that the Credit Union he founded lent The Undertones £400 to finance one of Seventies pop music’s most memorable singles, Teenage Kicks.
At the Guildhall yesterday his reputation across the world saw holidaymakers from the Republic, England, Scotland, Argentina, Italy, Germany and New Zealand queuing up to pay their respects.
Derry’s SDLP mayor Brian Tierney was one of the first people to pen a tribute to his former party leader, whom he described as “a hero of Ireland”.
Mr Hume’s most recent successor as SDLP leader, Colum Eastwood, said Ireland had lost its most significant political figure of the 20th century, and compared him to American civil rights leader Martin Luther King.
Declan Molloy and his wife travelled from Burnfoot in Donegal to share their admiration for “an amazing man”.
Mr Molloy said: “I remember the grim days of the Troubles and there’s no doubt that John Hume’s dogged determination helped bring the tragedies to an end.”
His wife Kathleen said: “This is a sadly historic day. John Hume will go down in history as one of the great peacemakers of the modern world. We could have added our condolences to online sites but we wanted to come out in person to show just how much we respect him.”
Sinn Fein’s former Assembly Speaker Mitchel Mclaughlin was also there signing the book, making reference to the Hume-adams talks and the Good Friday Agreement, and praising a “man of peace”.
Mickey Rooney from the Rosemount area of Derry said: “I grew up with John’s children. He was a guiding light for me and he even wrote me a reference for a job. He will never be replaced in politics here. You simply cannot overstate what he did for both sides of the divide and for Ireland generally.
“It’s easy to forget that John’s home and his family were attacked by all sides, but he never shirked from his quest for peace... I am sure what he had to endure probably affected his health.”
Paddy O’donnell said he couldn’t speak highly enough of Mr Hume and his stance against violence in a city where some people supported it.
He added: “He was a beacon of light in the darkness, a statesman who was never going to be shaken from his conviction that what he was doing was right. But the Troubles clearly took their toll on him. Who could forget the images of him crying uncontrollably at the funerals of the victims of the Greysteel massacre?”
Sean Ryan, a history teacher from Co Kildare on holiday on the north coast, brought his young daughter Beibhinn with him to the Guildhall. He said: “I teach about the Troubles of Northern Ireland and about John Hume. And I don’t think there is any man who changed the course of events up here more than him.”
Across the road from the Guildhall in the Pickled Duck cafe two members of the SDLP’S youth branch praised Hume for his “inspirational” leadership in the peace process, even though they were born long after the Good Friday Agreement and never knew him before his debilitating illness.
“But we know all about what John Hume did for Derry and for peace in Ireland,” said Karl Duncan (18), who is secretary of the branch.
“I think it’s crucially important that we preserve John’s legacy. His successes guaranteed that our lives in the post-conflict generation and the lives of our future children and grandchildren will all be brighter.”
Sixteen-year-old branch activist Ellie Jo Taylor said: “There wouldn’t be peace today if it wasn’t for John Hume. Our lives wouldn’t be the same without him.”
Beside them sat one of the SDLP’S most recently elected politicians, councillor Mary Durkan, who spoke of the enormous debt that she and Derry owed to Mr Hume and his “rock”, his wife Pat, whom the she described as a friend and mentor.
She said: “There’s a huge amount of sadness in the city today but there’s also a palpable pride, too, in John, who was first and foremost a Derry man regardless of his place on the international stage. He never lost his roots in the community that drove him to set up the Credit Union and housing associations.
“I also had the pleasure in 1998 after my A-levels of working in John and Pat’s office during the build-up to the referendum on the Good Friday Agreement, and I was also able to help in the run-up to the first Assembly elections. I learned a lot.
“It was an exciting time of hope, which was something that John was always able to engender. And I think that the tenets of hope, inclusion and partnership that John espoused are more important now than ever before.”
Throughout the day Radio Foyle bosses devoted much of their output to Mr Hume and memories about his life and his contributions to Derry.
They also played the Phil Coulter song The Town I Loved So Well, which Hume sang hundreds of times at functions in every corner of the globe.
Just listening to the tributes on the airwaves and on the streets and reading about his lesser known input into the city’s rebirth, it seemed inconceivable that one man alone could have found the time and energy to devote so much to so many different issues.
In his adopted home place in Moville, just over the border in Donegal, Peter Devine said: “John mightn’t have been one
❝ There wouldn’t be peace today if it wasn’t for John Hume. Our lives wouldn’t be the same
of us in the technical sense of the word. But everyone here had taken him to our hearts. Everyone loved him.
“He was undoubtedly a figure of international repute but he was also comfortable in his own backyard, a highly intellectual man who could help figure out the crises of the planet but could also talk about fishing problems on Lough Foyle.”
Back at the Guildhall, Donegal
woman Margaret O’donnell said: “I used to come to Derry when there were bombs going off and there were soldiers on the streets. So I respect John Hume immensely for doing what he did to curb the violence.”
At The Brandywell Mr Hume, who had been president of Derry City FC, was fondly remembered by people passing the stadium for his efforts to help the club. His greatest achievement was persuading Spanish giants Barcelona to come to Derry to play a friendly against the Candystripes in front of a 10,000 sell-out crowd in August 2003. The fans saw Brazilian superstar Ronaldinho lead Barca to a 5-0 win, but the much-needed cash from the turnstiles — and the occasion itself — was much more important than the result to Derry and to John Hume, who was a regular at The Brandywell for less glamorous fixtures too.
But in Derry yesterday there were also stories of how John Hume, the friend of Catholic and Protestant bishops Edward Daly and James Mehaffey, was also a cricket lover who was coveted by clubs on the Waterside of the city because he was a slow-paced left-arm bowler — a rare commodity in the game in the north west.
There was also praise on the Waterside for Mr Hume from unionist politicians. Councillor Darren Guy, whose father Jim was a former mayor of the city, said Mr Hume was a “remarkable man who brought employment to the city and fought for peace because it was the right thing to do”.
Mr Guy, a taxi driver, recalled how he once picked up Mr Hume in his cab and talked to him about suggestions that the Peace Bridge in Derry might be named after his late father rather than the SDLP leader.
However, Mr Hume insisted the Jim Guy Bridge could never happen because it would mean that two bridges in Derry were named after unionists.
In Derry yesterday, however, there was serious talk among a number of influential figures that the Peace Bridge should now become the John Hume Peace Bridge. “I think it’s only a matter of time before that happens,” said one councillor, who preferred not to be named.