John Hume brought an honourable and permanent peace to this country.
And if that was all he had achieved in his illustrious and distinguished life of service to the people of his city, Derry, ‘the town he loved so well’, to the people of the north, to the people of Ireland, then this achievement would stand alone as a monumental tribute to him.
But, of course he did more, much more – too much for me with 700 words to reflect.
I pay tribute to him, and his devoted wife Pat and their family, as a peacemaker, who captured the elusive prize of peace ending centuries of resistance to the violent occupation of this country by Britain.
John Hume’s success was due to his wholly different approach to resolving the conflict.
And maybe it was the failure of all the other attempts that convinced him to take a different approach when the opportunity presented itself.
And that opportunity was presented by Gerry Adams.
John Hume’s success was he believed in and trusted Gerry Adams and Gerry Adams’s success was he believed in and trusted John Hume.
That trust and belief was indispensable for both men as John Hume sought to convince those in the Irish, British and US political establishments, with a singular view that the IRA was the problem; and Gerry Adams sought to convince republicans that John Hume’s advice could be relied on and that the time for peace negotiations had arrived.
It was a high-risk endeavour for both men. For John Hume he was upending a powerful establishment whose narrative was the IRA bore all responsibility, ignoring fifty years of state violence and nationalist humiliation.
For Gerry Adams he had to deal with the IRA’s understandably deep distrust of the British government who had spurned two IRA ceasefires over the previous twenty years leaving behind a bitter experience for the IRA leadership.
John Hume was not alone in his ambitious plan. He had the irrepressible advocate for peace, Fr Alex Reid, by his side.
Gerry Adams was not alone in his ambitious plan. He had Martin McGuinness by his side and Fr Alex knocking on his door.
A few weeks ago, Danny Morrison and I were cycling past St Gerard’s Church on the Antrim Road where my late father, a devout Catholic, attended religious retreats.
Danny told me it was there that the SDLP-Sinn Féin talks took place in the late 1980s – important talks, which he attended and which ended inconclusively but afterwards John Hume and Gerry Adams continued to meet privately.
A friendship emerged that became a private partnership that produced the Hume-Adams talks which ultimately led to the IRA’s ceasefire of August 1994 and led to the transformation of Irish politics and history.
If there is a photograph which embodies the great sense of hope of the new beginning from that period it is of Taoiseach Albert Reynolds, John Hume and Gerry Adams, clasping hands, on the steps of government buildings in Dublin. The photo symbolised nationalist Ireland on the first rung of the peace ladder.
Unknown to everyone but Rita O'Hare and I, who were with Gerry, he is wearing under his shirt a Bobby Sands T-shirt.
He put it on in the back of the car minutes before we went into government buildings.
On such a momentous occasion Gerry wanted Bobby close to him and rightly so.
It was the first time Rita and I met Albert Reynolds and John Hume. Both were friendly, welcoming and engaging.
I met John several times, especially at the ‘Forum for Peace and Reconciliation’ held in Dublin Castle.
He was easy to approach, no ‘airs or graces’ about him. He greeted you with a smile.
These personal qualities in a leader held in such high esteem, were reflected in John Hume’s peacemaking, which could be summed up in the phrase he often used publicly – ‘if you are part of the problem, then you are part of the solution’.
An approach which invited the prejudiced wrath of hostile politicians and media in Ireland and Britain who were comfortable with the status quo, which they protected, even though people were dying.
The violent partitionist status quo was not an option for John Hume. It had to end.
And end it did.
And now we have a new and peaceful Ireland.
It could not have happened without him.
Thank you so much John.
