N Ireland peacemaker John Hume dies at 83

LONDON: John Hume, the Northern Irish politician who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1998 for his pivotal role in ending decades of violence in the British province, has died aged 83, his family announced Monday.

Hume, the former leader of the mainly Catholic Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP), shared the Nobel with David Trimble of the Ulster Unionist Party after the pair helped forge the 1998 Good Friday peace agreement.

It helped to end three decades of bloody strife in Northern Ireland between the largely Catholic nationalist community who want to reunify with Ireland and Protestant unionists who want to remain part of Britain.

“We are deeply saddened to announce that John passed away peacefully in the early hours of the morning after a short illness,” Hume’s family said in a statement. Hume had been suffering from dementia and had been in the care of a nursing home in Londonderry, where he was born.

A consistently moderate voice during a conflict that killed almost 3,600 people, he helped lead the cross-community peace process that culminated in the landmark 1998 deal reached by Belfast, Dublin and London.

Born in the Northern Irish city and republican stronghold of Londonderry in 1937, Hume joined the province’s civil rights movement in the late 1960s as Catholics demanded equality in housing, voting and other issues.

He was elected to Northern Ireland’s parliament as an independent lawmaker.