John Hume
John Hume was born in The Glen area of Derry, or Londonderry, on January 18, 1937, and was educated at St Eugene’s primary School, Rosemount, and at St. Columb’s College. At first, he planned to join the priesthood, but after three years of religious studies, he quit. He graduated from NUI Maynooth in 1958 with a B.A. in French and History. He spent several summers studying in France, at St. Malo, Brittany, and at the Institut Catholique in Paris. He received his Master’s degree from St. Patrick’s College, Maynooth, in 1964, his thesis being about Derry in the 19th century. Among his teachers was the future Cardinal Tomás Ó Fiaich.
He then returned home to Derry where he became a teacher. He was a founding member of the Derry Credit Union, the first credit union in Northern Ireland. At the age of 27 he became the youngest ever president of the Irish League of Credit Unions, a title he held from 1964 to 1968. He once said that “of all the things I’ve been doing, it’s the thing I’m proudest of, because no movement has done more good for the people of Ireland, north and south, than the Credit Union movement.”
He was an admirer of Dr Martin Luther King and committed to achieving social and political goals through non-violent means. In 1964, along with Fr Mulvey he established the Derry Housing Association to to tackle the city’s housing shortage.
He was active in the Nationalist Party in the early 1960s but resigned in 1964.
While trying to defuse a confrontation between demonstrators and troops in Derry in 1968, Hume was repeatedly knocked down with a fire hose and finally arrested for “obstructing Her Majesty’s forces.” He was fined £20, but he refused to pay, on principle, and appealed his case to the House of Lords where his conviction was overturned.
He was elected as an independent nationalist member of the Stormont Parliament in 1969 at the height of the civil rights campaign. He was elected to the Northern Ireland Assembly in 1973, and served as Minister of Commerce in the short-lived power-sharing government in 1974. He was elected a Westminster MP in 1983.
In October 1971 he joined four Westminster MPs in a 48-hour hunger strike to protest at internment without trial. As the conflict escaleted into violence, In 1972 the British government terminated regional government in Northern Ireland and began direct rule from London
A founding member of the SDLP, he succeeded Gerry Fitt as its leader in 1979. He has also served as one of Northern Ireland’s three Members of the European Parliament.
John Hume became directly involved in secret talks with the British government and Sinn Féin, in effort to bring Sinn Féin to the discussion table openly. The talks are speculated to have led directly to the Anglo-Irish Agreement of 1985.
Rejected by unionists
However the vast majority of unionists rejected the agreement and staged a massive public rally in Belfast to demonstrate their distaste. Many republicans and nationalists rejected it also as not going far enough. Hume, however, continued dialogue with both British and Irish governments and Sinn Féin, ultimately leading to the 1994 IRA ceasefire and the Good Friday agreement.
Hume is credited with being one of the main architects behind many of the recent political developments in Northern Ireland, from Sunningdale power-sharing to the Anglo-Irish Agreement and the Belfast Agreement. He travelled frequently to the USA to enlist American support for the peace process and investment in Northern Ireland’s struggling economy. He became such a familiar figure in the halls of the U.S. Congress that Capitol observers took to calling him the “101st Senator.” He found an attentive listener in U.S. President Bill Clinton, who in 1995 became the first U.S. president to visit Belfast and Derry, lending visible American support to multi-party talks.
When David Trimble became First Minister in the newly-created Northern Assembly under the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, it was expected that Hume would take the role of his deputy, being leader of the second largest party, the SDLP. Instead this role was handed to another SDLP representative, Seamus Mallon.
He retired from the leadership of the SDLP in 2001 and in 2004 he announced his complete retirement from politics.His critics are few: Conor Cruise O’Brien, the Irish writer, was critical of Hume for what he perceived as his anti-Protestant bias. Hume was a never a typical nationalist though and he chose to play cricket rather than Gaelic games. He was a left arm spin bowler for the City of Derry cricket team when he was the only Catholic in the side. Even during The Troubles he was still welcome at the club. He was unusual in mixing socially with middle class Protestants which helped him later.
Global poverty
He continues to be active in promoting European integration, issues around global poverty and the Credit Union movement. A building in NUI Maynooth was named after him.
He was jointly awarded the 1998 Nobel Peace Prize with Unionist leader David Trimble. He is also a recipient of the Gandhi Peace Prize and the Martin Luther King Award, making him the only recipient of the three major peace awards.
He is also president Derry City football club which he has supported all his life.
John Hume has an assured place in the history of modern Ireland and as a peacemaker of world status. He has unstintingly given of his intelligence, energy, time and passion to the cause of reconciliation. The tortuous and complex negotiations that have led to a new beginning for Ireland were brought to fruition through his empathetic vision of a tolerant and inclusive country whose citizens could live and work side by side in peace with respect for one another’s religious beliefs and way of life.
In the words of former U.S. President Clinton, John Hume remains “Ireland’s most tireless champion for civil rights and its most eloquent spokesman for peace.”
In 2010 he was named “Ireland’s Greatest Person” in a public poll by Irish national broadcaster RTÉ to find the greatest person in Ireland’s history from a list that included James Connolly and Bono. John Hume is married and he and his wife Pat have three daughters and two sons.