40
David Trimble
1944–2022
It takes a man of talent to lead people in
a new direction, and over the recent years, some have hoped that David Trimble
may be the man to resolve the
He
was born on
All
of these places,
From
1968 to 1990 he taught in the law faculty at Queen's, first as a lecturer, and
then from 1977 as a Senior Lecturer. He
was called to the Northern Ireland Bar in 1969.
At this time he edited the Northern Ireland Law Reports, as well as
publishing a work on Northern Ireland Housing Law (1986) - housing having a
central and contentious role in the politics of Northern Ireland. He was also co-author of Human Rights and
Responsibilities in Britain and Ireland published in 1986.
David
Trimble began his political career as an extension of his profession. For him the law was there to protect his
community, and he was keen to insist on the letter of the law. Good intentions were not enough - in life, as
in law, good faith could only be shown by acts.
In pursuit of this he was a founder of the Vanguard Unionist group.
Elected
as member for
As
an outcome of the Good Friday Agreement, Trimble was elected First Minister of
the Northern Ireland Assembly in 1998, though that body remained inactive until
a further settlement was reached on the contentious issue of arms still
remaining in the hands of terrorist groups on both sides of the community
divide.
In
the autumn of 1998 he and JOHN
HUME [57] shared the Nobel Prize for Peace, an award posited on the
idealistic notion that the Good Friday Agreement meant peace at last in
As
an indication of his political outlook, he was not only in favour of the
introduction of the death penalty for killing a policeman,
he has been resolutely anti-European in his attitudes. Though he voted for keeping Sunday Special,
he abstained on the proposition to reduce the age of sexual consent for minors
to sixteen in February 1994 - a matter on which many persons of a conservative
outlook were highly excited.
This
social conservatism married nicely with his strong Unionism. But it is perhaps his legalistic mind that dominates
his activities, a care of the meaning of words and the interpretation which
they might bear. Lawyers are nothing new
in Irish politics, but academics as leaders are a recent phenomenon. An Orangeman, he has from time to time made
populist appearances at such contentious places as Drumcree in July 1996, a
place around which much of the fears and anxieties of the Unionist community
crystallised, but baiting and brawling do not seem to be his métier (as they
are for Ian Paisley). A local residents group,
motivated by Sinn Féin workers, prevented Orangemen marching along a
'traditional route' through the Nationalist estate on the
Once the Ulster Unionist party had been dominated by working-class
Orangemen led by landed grandees and rich captains of industry. Many of Trimble's followers, however, belong
to that upper working class, lower middle class, shopkeeping class, that have
always lived in fear of social and political change. The broader middle class has, as a whole,
abandoned politics to Ulster's loss but Trimble, as a former academic and a
middle-class Protestant, may be able to provide the right leadership to carry
the elements of the Unionist party into a new harmony with their fellow
citizens.
Whether his skills as a lawyer and speaker and his nimbleness as a
politician can help him carry his party forward, past their demand to the IRA
of 'No Guns. No Government.'
remains to be seen. With wise
counselling Trimble may be able to achieve the breakthrough that returned local
rule to
Late
in 2000 David Trimble has struggled to balance the demands of his party against
the needs of the