This is a page of the history of Northern Ireland, who turns. John Hume, a moderate catholic, who had been awarded the Nobel peace prize for his role in the reconciliation in the british nation, died Monday at the age of 83. "John died in the early morning, following a short illness ", said in a statement that his family, thanking the staff of the retirement home of Londonderry (north), near the border with the irish, where he spent the last months of his life.
The former catholic leader and nationalist, was awarded the Nobel prize in 1998 with the leader of the protestant of Ulster unionist, David Trimble, in recognition of "their efforts to find a peaceful solution" in 30 years of "troubles" with more than 3 500 people dead. A few months earlier, in April 1998, a peace agreement, said good Friday had been signed in Belfast between London, Dublin and the political parties of protestants and catholics.
The minister of foreign Affairs Simon Coveney has welcomed on Twitter " a man, peacemaker, politician, leader, a civil-rights activist extraordinaire.
John Hume has died. Ireland, all of us, should bow our heads in respect & thanks. What an extraordinary man, peacemaker, politican, leader, civil rights campaigning hard, family man, Derryman, inspiration. May he rest peacefully & his legacy live on. Hearty sympathy with Pat & family. pic.twitter.com/XZlYg4zHap
— Simon Coveney (@simoncoveney) August 3, 2020
Read also And the Brexit awoke the demons irish...
religion in the policy
Born in Londonderry on January 18, 1937, John Hume was first to become a priest, but after a passage by the seminar, he changed his mind and graduated with a degree in history and French, which he spoke fluently. He has taught at Londonderry, a city torn by conflict, where he began to engage in politics. Elected independent Parliament of the british province in 1969, he was part of the founding the following year of the nationalist party of the left SDLP, the Social Democratic and Labour Party. Elected to the british Parliament in 1983, it has contributed in the following years to bring the conflict in northern ireland on the international scene, involving Bill Clinton. Locally, this figure moderate has engaged in dialogue with the nationalists of Sinn Féin, the political wing of the irish republican Army, and its leader, Gerry Adams, was laying the foundations of peace agreements.
The family of John Hume and was assured that because of the sanitary conditions present, the funeral would take place "with very strict rules" about the number of people present. A tribute to him will be made later. At the end of June, in the containment due to the pandemic of novel coronavirus, some 1, 800 people have attended the funeral for Bobby Storey, a former figure of the IRA which would have been the head of intelligence. Among the crowd were leaders of Sinn Féin, the deputy First minister, northern ireland Michelle O'neill, prompting calls for the resignation and undermined the fragile political balance that has allowed in the beginning of the year to put an end to three years of paralysis in the province.
