Leaders pay last tribute to Trimble

DAVID Trimble was yesterday remembered as a man whose actions had ‘saved many lives’.

The funeral of the former Ulster Unionist leader was held in Lisburn, Co Antrim, with Boris Johnson, Irish president Michael D Higgins and taoiseach Micheal Martin among the mourners.

Lord Trimble, who helped broker the 1998 Good Friday Agreement between loyalists and republicans, died last week aged 77 following an illness.

Rev Charles McMullen, former moderator of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, told the congregation the Nobel peace prize winner had risen to seemingly impossible challenges.

This, he said, had ‘saved many lives and allowed a generation to grow up in relative peace’.