Former U.S. President Bill Clinton has described David Trimble, who passed away on Monday at age 77, as a “leader of courage and vision.”
Former Ulster Unionist leader Trimble was instrumental in negotiating the 1998 Good Friday Agreement.
The former hardline unionist was an unlikely peace negotiator, but was rewarded for helping to deliver a referendum in Northern Ireland in support of the agreement with a Nobel Peace Prize along with SDLP leader John Hume.
From 2006 Trimble sat in the House of Lords in London as a Conservative Lord. In recent years he spoke out against the Northern Ireland Protocol.
President Clinton said: “Time after time during the negotiations that led to the Good Friday Agreement, he made the hard choices over the politically expedient ones because he believed future generations deserved to grow up free from violence and hatred.
“His faith in the democratic process allowed him to stand up to strong opposition in his own community, persuade them of the merits of compromise, and share power with his former adversaries. His legacy will endure in all who are living better lives because of him today.”
Taoiseach Micheál Martin expressed his condolences to the Trimble family.
“In his speech accepting the Nobel Prize, Trimble spoke about the ‘politicians of the possible’, a phrase which I think sums up the David Trimble we all knew, and it speaks to his achievements over many decades, often in challenging circumstances.
“The work of reconciliation begun in the Good Friday Agreement continues, and as new generations pick up the mantle of this work, it is fitting that we pay tribute to Lord Trimble for his central contribution in setting us on the path to peace and reconciliation,” the Taoiseach said.
Former Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams, who helped negotiate the Good Friday Agreement, expressed his “deep regret” at the death of Lord Trimble.
“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. It is to his credit that he supported that Agreement. I thank him for that,” Adams said.
“In the years immediately following the Agreement I met David many times. Our conversations were not always easy but we made progress. We used to meet quite often on our own and I got to know him quite well. While we held fundamentally different political opinions on the way forward nonetheless I believe he was committed to making the peace process work.
“David’s contribution to the Good Friday Agreement and to the quarter century of relative peace that followed cannot be underestimated,” Adams said.
Current DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson, who walked out of the Ulster Unionist Party while David Trimble was leader, said he made “a huge contribution to Northern Ireland.
“Throughout some of the most difficult years of the Troubles, David was a committed and passionate advocate for the Union, at a time when doing so placed a considerable threat to his safety. Whilst our political paths parted within the Ulster Unionist Party, there can be no doubting his bravery and determination in leadership at that time. He was a committed and passionate unionist who always wanted the best for Northern Ireland,” the DUP leader said.
“Right until recent days David continued to use his political skill and intellect, most recently in support of the United Kingdom’s decision to leave the European Union and in opposition to the Northern Ireland Protocol,” Donaldson added. “As a Nobel laureate, his words carried significant weight and he helped raise awareness of the threat the protocol posed to Northern Ireland, particularly amongst the wider UK audience.”
