The Northern Irish politician and a founding member of the Social Democratic and Labour Party won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1998 for his contribution to the agreements between London and Dublin that ended decades of violent conflict in Northern Ireland.
John Hume – who was one of the key architects of the Good Friday Agreement, which ended The Troubles in Northern Ireland – has died.
Hume, who founded the moderate Irish nationalist SDLP, died on Monday, 3 August.
Hume – who suffered from dementia in the last years of his life – worked closely with David Trimble, the then leader of the Ulster Unionist Party, to settle a violent conflict in Northern Ireland between the Protestant majority and the Catholic minority, which claimed over 3,500 lives between 1969 and 1994.
Hume and Trimble were subsequently awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for ending the conflict between the Irish Republican Army and the British government, who were unofficially supported by loyalist paramilitary groups like the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF).
Hume was the first politician to sit down for talks with Gerry Adams, the leader of Sinn Fein – the political wing of the Provisional IRA.
Those talks led to secret negotiations with the British and Irish governments which led to the IRA’s first ceasefire in 1994. That broke down and there were more killings but when the Labour Party won a landslide election victory in 1997 Tony Blair’s new government made peace in Northern Ireland its top priority.
Hume was key to the eventual Good Friday Agreement, which led to power-sharing between the Protestant and Catholic communities.
Hume resigned from the SDLP in 2001 and served as a Member of the European Parliament until his retirement in 2004.
Hume was named “Ireland’s Greatest” in a public poll in the Republic of Ireland in 2010.
Northern Ireland’s First Minister Arlene Foster described Hume as a “giant in Irish nationalism” and sent her condolences to his widow, Pat.
Sourse: sputniknews.com
