In a political career that spanned five decades, Hume’s advocacy for meaningful power sharing, respect for difference and reconciliation inspired much of the framework for the Good Friday Agreement of 1998. His vision, strength and leadership was crucial to the peace process.
Federation of Irish Societies Congress 1983
Hume valued the role of the Irish diaspora, as highlighted in Maurice Fitzpatrick’s important 2017 documentary In the Name of Peace: John Hume in America, and was also a great friend to the community in Britain. He spoke at the 1983 congress of the Federation of Irish Societies (as Irish in Britain was then known) in Birmingham.
The congress was held shortly before the New Ireland Forum opened – an initiative led by then Taoiseach Garret FitzGerald with Hume’s support. The Forum generated novel political ideas in response to the Troubles, though it was not embraced by Sinn Féin and unionist groups and its proposals were ultimately rejected by Margaret Thatcher. It may have, however, influenced much within the Anglo–Irish Agreement of 1985, an important milestone which acknowledged that inter–governmental cooperation between the UK and Ireland must play a part in the peace process.
Hume invited the Federation of Irish Societies to share the perspectives of the Irish in Britain to the Forum. In its submission, the Federation identified itself as “in a unique position to make a contribution to the work of the Forum because the Irish community in Britain are living proof that it is possible for Irish and British, Catholic and Protestant to live together peacefully and productively”.
Five decades of political campaigns
In a political career that began in the 1960s with involvement in the civil rights campaign in Northern Ireland and the credit union movement, Hume sat as a representative in the Northern Irish Parliament (a body suspended in 1972), the Stormont Assembly, the House of Commons and the European Parliament, until his retirement in 2005. He was also a founding member and later leader of the nationalist Social Democratic and Labour Party.
In 2010, a public poll for RTÉ chose Hume as ‘Ireland’s Greatest’. He was a co–recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1998 with David Trimble.
Our thoughts are with his wife Pat and family.
Left to right: Seamus McGarry, former Taoiseach Jack Lynch, Annette McGarry and John Hume.