Leader who gave his life for country
BY DAVID YOUNG & CATE McCURRY reporters@dailyrecord.co.uk
JOHN Hume made peace visible for others even in Northern Ireland’s darkest moments, his funeral was told yesterday.
Mourners heard that the former SDLP leader put everybody first and had no interest in difference and division.
Ireland’s president Michael D Higgins, taoiseach Micheal Martin, as well as Northern Ireland’s First Minister Arlene Foster and Deputy First Minister Michelle O’Neill attended the Nobel Peace Prize laureate’s funeral at St Eugene’s Cathedral in his home city of Derry.
Messages were read from former US president Bill Clinton, Prime Minister Boris Johnson, the Dalai Lama and Pope Francis, who praised Hume’s “untiring efforts to promote dialogue, reconciliation and peace”.
Hume, 83, died on Monday after suffering from dementia.
The former MEP, MLA and Foyle MP refused to accept that peace in Northern Ireland was impossible and his dogged work across decades was critical in creating the conditions for the signing of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998.
That achievement, in bringing together Unionists, Nationalists, Loyalists and Republicans, helped bring 30 blood-soaked years of The Troubles to an end.
At the funeral, Father Paul Farren said: “Even in the darkest moments, when people would have been forgiven for having no hope, John made peace visible for others.
“His vision revealed what could be, and with time and determination and single-mindedness and stubbornness, he convinced others that peace could be a reality.
“He never lost faith in peace and he never lost faith in his ability to convince others that peace was the only way.
“If ever you want to see a man who gave his life for his country, and his health, that man is John Hume.”