The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Tributes to Nobel Peace Prize winner John Hume
Former SDLP leader was one of the main architects of peace in Northern Ireland
Tributes have been paid to former SDLP leader John Hume, one of the key architects of peace in Northern Ireland, after his death at the age of 83.
Mr Hume, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for the decisive part he played in ending the Troubles, had suffered ill-health for a number of years.
The former Foyle MP had dementia and was being cared for in the Owen Mor nursing home in Londonderry. He died in the early hours of yesterday. Prime Minister Boris Johnson described Mr Hume as a “political giant”, while Irish premier Micheal Martin said he was a “great hero and a true peacemaker”.
Former prime minister Tony Blair hailed Mr Hume’s “epic” contribution to the peace process.
Northern Ireland First Minister Arlene Foster and Deputy First Minister Michelle O’Neill also paid tribute.
Current SDLP leader Colum Eastwood said the island had lost its most significant and consequential political figure of the 20th Century.
Mr Hume, a former MEP for Northern
Ireland, was a founding member of the party he went on to lead for 22 years.
He was a key figure in the civil rights movement of the late 1960s and throughout his political career remained steadfast in his commitment to non-violence.
His participation in secret talks with then Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams in the late 1980s and early 1990s was a key catalyst for the nascent peace process.
The highlight of his career came in 1998 with the signing of the Good Friday accord which largely ended Northern Ireland’s 30-year sectarian conflict.
Along with Ulster Unionist Party leader David Trimble, now Lord Trimble, Mr Hume was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his contribution to stopping the bloodshed.
In 2010, Mr Hume was named “Ireland’s Greatest” in a poll by Ireland’s national broadcaster RTE.
His death comes just six months after that of fellow Good Friday architect and long-time SDLP deputy leader Seamus Mallon.
Gerry Adams said he and John Hume met secretly for more than a decade during the worst days of the Troubles.
“At the end of it all, it worked and it worked not least because of John Hume, and many others,” he said.
“But just because this is the sad day of his passing, let’s mark it that it would not have happened without John Hume or Pat Hume.”
Mr Johnson said there would have been no Good Friday Agreement without Mr Hume. “John Hume was quite simply a political giant,” he said. “He stood proudly in the tradition that was totally opposed to violence and committed to pursuing his objectives by exclusively peaceful and democratic means.”
Taoiseach Mr Martin said: “Throughout his long life he exhibited not just courage, but also fortitude, creativity and an utter conviction that democracy and human rights must define any modern society.”