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FOREWORD

John Hume: Founding Father

The all-party peace talks that began in Northern Ireland in June 1996 were the product of an effort that spanned decades and involved the British and Irish governments and political leaders from Ireland and Northern Ireland. The talks were cumbersome: two governments, ten political parties and the independent chairmen. The issues were complex and overlapping.

Many people contributed to that effort. But the primary architect, the person who conceived the manner in which all of the disparate parties and issues could be brought together, in a process that had some chance of success, was John Hume.

He understood the full dimensions of the conflict, especially that it was not just between Unionists and nationalists in Northern Ireland, but also included the relationships between Ireland and Northern Ireland and between Ireland and the United Kingdom. When the talks finally began, they were organized in three ‘strands’, in almost precisely the manner suggested by Hume years earlier. Twenty-two months later, when agreement was reached, it was in that same format.

Throughout human history, great leaders have emerged to lead their societies into and out of conflict. The successful leaders were those who had a large and positive vision, and the courage and stamina to lift themselves and their followers to a higher level of expectation and performance.

In Northern Ireland John Hume was that leader. His vision of Northern Ireland was acquired over the years of his immersion in the difficult and dangerous life of a society in conflict; a society torn by anger, hostility, fear and anxiety. It is hard to have a grand vision when bullets are flying. But John Hume was unique, an extraordinary leader who was able to offer, in his personal courage and his sharp and incisive mind and rhetoric, a new way. In the United States we would call him a ‘Founding Father’.

Politically, the nationalists were divided between the Social Democratic and Labour Party, led by Hume, and Sinn Féin, led by Gerry Adams. They had taken different paths toward their common goal. Hume insisted that the nationalists be reconciled to a single approach, and that the only way forward was through the political process. With Adams and the Prime Minister of Ireland, Albert Reynolds, a unified approach was agreed.

A ceasefire was declared in the summer of 1994 by the IRA; it led to a reciprocal ceasefire by the Loyalist paramilitaries. That laid the foundation. Then, many others joined in building the edifice of peace.

David Trimble and Reg Empey, leaders of the Ulster Unionist Party, were essential to the Agreement; David Ervine and Gary McMichael were the leaders of small but important Loyalist parties; also small but influential were the women of Northern Ireland, led at the talks by Monica McWilliams and Pearl Sagar. Adams’s colleague Martin McGuinness, and Hume’s colleagues, Seamus Mallon and Mark Durkan, were major contributors, as were John Alderdice and his colleagues in the Alliance Party. Later, at St Andrews, in a critical turning point, Ian Paisley and Peter Robinson led the Democratic Unionist Party to take a major step forward. A succession of Prime Ministers created and maintained the momentum for peace: John Major and Tony Blair in the UK, and Albert Reynolds, John Bruton and Bertie Ahern in Ireland. Bill Clinton was the first American president to become fully engaged in the effort to end the conflict in Northern Ireland.

The negotiating process, which I chaired with my colleagues, General John de Chastelain and Prime Minister Harri Holkeri, was slow and difficult; it was, as I have previously noted, the product of decades of effort. Among the earlier major steps was the Anglo-Irish Agreement (1985); it committed the two governments to work together to bring the conflict to an end. The Downing Street Declaration (1993) built on that; in it the British Government made clear that it had no strategic or long-term interest in controlling Northern Ireland. A series of Prime Ministers reaffirmed that policy.

Another major factor was the creation of the European Union. There the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland worked together, along with two dozen other European countries, for a common and great objective: a peaceful and a prosperous Europe. Perhaps without even recognising it, British and Irish leaders became acclimated to dealing with each other; gradually the cold hostility that had marked their relationship dissipated.

John Hume was full of life and energy, a natural leader, a man who took courageous and personally dangerous positions all his life, in an effort to find a way forward in Northern Ireland. I am deeply gratified that a history of his work with American leaders has now been written.

Senator George J. Mitchell

October 2017