Lord Trimble, the man who helped to end The Troubles, dies aged 77
TRIBUTES were paid last night to former Northern Ireland First Minister David Trimble – a key architect of the peace process – who died yesterday aged 77.
Lord Trimble, then leader of the Ulster Unionists, persuaded his reluctant party to back the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, which brought an end to almost 30 years of fighting.
He jointly won the Nobel Peace Prize with the SDLP’s John Hume later that year. His family said he ‘passed away peacefully’ following a short illness.’
Boris Johnson wrote on Twitter: ‘I am deeply saddened to learn of the death of Lord Trimble earlier today.
‘He was a giant of British and international politics and will be long remembered for his intellect, personal bravery and fierce determination to change politics for the better.’
He added: ‘He championed democracy over violence and played a huge role in setting Northern Ireland on the path to peace.’ Lord Trimble’s onetime
opponent, Sinn Fein’s Gerry Adams expressed his ‘deep regret’. He said: ‘David faced huge challenges when he led the Ulster Unionist Party in the Good Friday Agreement negotiations and persuaded his party to sign on for it.
‘In the years immediately following the agreement I met David many times. Our conversations were not always easy but we made progress.
‘David’s contribution to the Good Friday Agreement and to the quarter century of relative peace that followed cannot be
under-estimated.’ Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said: ‘ David was a great figure, instrumental in delivering the Belfast Agreement and the optimistic Northern Ireland of today.’
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer hailed him as a ‘towering figure of Northern Ireland and British politics’.
Last month, Lord Trimble appeared with his wife Daphne at the unveiling of a portrait of him in Belfast, smiling but appearing very frail.
The role of peacemaker was the culmination of a remarkable journey for the former law lecturer. In the early 1970s, he had joined hardline Unionist group Vanguard.
He heard gunshots which killed a fellow law professor in 1983, later identifying his body, and it fuelled a bitter hatred of the IRA. He was elected as MP for Upper Bann following a by-election in 1990.
Lord Trimble seemed to remain a hardliner and won the party leadership after marching hand-in-hand with the Rev Ian Paisley, leader of the Democratic Unionists, in Portadown in full Orange regalia – seen as triumphalism.
But he later held talks with Sinn Fein. His leap of faith paved the way for Northern Ireland to move on from a conflict which had claimed 3,600 lives.
Then US President Bill Clinton helped to secure the historic agreement by bringing Ulster’s political parties together. Father- of-four Lord Trimble, who was First Minister from 1998 to 2002, became a Conservative peer after his general election defeat in 2005. His first marriage ended in divorce in 1976. He married his former student Daphne in 1978.