David Trimble: Nobel Peace Prize winner dies aged 77

David Trimble and John Hume, who died in 2020, were the principal architects of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement

Leader of the Ulster Unionist Party, David Trimble, when he announced that his party had agreed to the terms of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998.

David Trimble, Northern Ireland's former First Minister and recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, has died aged 77. 

He was the leader of the Ulster Unionist Party from 1995 until 2005. 

Mr Trimble was instrumental in the Good Friday Agreement negotiations, making him one of the chief leaders to bring peace to Northern Ireland after the worst of the Troubles. 

He was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts, alongside John Hume, the former SDLP leader who died in 2020. 

In a statement released today, his family said: "It is with great sadness that the family of Lord Trimble announce that he passed away peacefully earlier today following a short illness."

Mr Trimble was also an MP in Westminster representing Upper Bann from 1990 until 2005. In 2006 he was made a life peer in the House of Lords. 

UUP Leader David Trimble First Minister of Northern Ireland and his Deputy Leader John Taylor and members of his party's delegation address the media at the end of the Peace Talks in Castle Buildings in 1999 Photo: RollingNews.ie

His time as First Minister was turbulent, and fraught with tension surrounding the issue of IRA decommissioning. 

A Co Down man, he started his career as a law lecturer in Queen's University Belfast. 

After being unexpectedly elected as the leader of the UUP in 1995, he went on to become one of the central figures of the Northern Irish peace process. 

The current UUP leader Doug Beattie has paid tribute to Mr Trimble as a man of "courage and vision." 

He said: “Tonight’s news will cause deep sadness throughout Northern Ireland and much further afield.

“David Trimble was a man of courage and vision. He chose to grasp the opportunity for peace when it presented itself and sought to end the decades of violence that blighted his beloved Northern Ireland.

“He will forever be associated with the leadership he demonstrated in the negotiations that led up to the 1998 Belfast Agreement.

“The bravery and courage he demonstrated whilst battling his recent illness was typical of the qualities he showed in his political career, at Stormont and at Westminster.

“He will be remembered as a First Minister, as a Peer of the Realm and as a Nobel Prize Winner. He will also be remembered as a great Unionist.

“On behalf of the Ulster Unionist Party, and with a very heavy heart, I would like to extend my deepest sympathies to his wife Lady Trimble and his children, Richard, Victoria, Sarah and Nicholas.”

SDLP leader Colum Eastwood has said that the political risks Trimble took "sustained the life of our fledgling peace process."

“David Trimble’s life has left an indelible mark on our shared island’s story. Over the course of his political career but particularly in difficult years of the Good Friday Agreement negotiations he demonstrated immense courage and took political risks that sustained the life of our fledgling peace process. He doesn’t often enough get credit for it but without David Trimble’s fortitude, there would simply have been no agreement.

“The image of David and Seamus Mallon walking through Poyntzpass together in 1998 to comfort the families of Damien Trainor and Philip Allen is an enduring icon of the peace process that inspired a whole generation of people who wanted, and needed, to believe that our shared future could be different from our divided past. It is my enduring memory of his commitment to reconciliation.

“My thoughts and prayers are with Daphne, Richard, Victoria, Nicholas and Sarah at this difficult time. I hope they are comforted by the immense legacy that David left to the people of Northern Ireland," he further stated.