The service in Lisbon on Monday brought together British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and other politicians from London, Dublin and Belfast to bid farewell to Northern Ireland’s inaugural first minister. It was a rare gathering and show of solidarity – and a reprieve from current political tensions – to honor Lord Trimble, architect of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement and former leader of the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP), who died last week in age 77. Irish President Michael D. Higgins and Thai leader Michel Martin joined Northern Ireland party leaders at Harmony Hill Presbyterian Church, a name both apt and ironic given Trimble’s dismal stint as a peacemaker. Trimble shared the 1998 Nobel Peace Prize with John Hume, then leader of the Social Democratic and Labor Party (SDLP), but was branded a traitor by many unionists and faced death threats. Mourners hear tributes to Lord Trimble’s “remarkable strength of character” at the service. Photo: Liam McBurney/PA The Irish tricolor was flown at half-mast over the Irish Parliament in Dublin as a mark of respect for his role in ending the riots while trying to preserve Northern Ireland’s place in the United Kingdom. Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair said Trimble had shown great courage to leading trade unionists, despite deep doubts, in a new era. “It’s what defines leadership in the end,” he told the BBC. Mourners heard personal stories about Trimble’s childhood at Bangor High School in the 1960s, his career as a law professor at Queen’s University Belfast and how he overcame shyness to become a transformational leader of the UUP from 1995 to 2005. The Rev Fiona Forbes said people were remembering an academic, a Nobel laureate, a husband, a father and a grandfather. “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God,” he said. Charles McMullen, former moderator of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, told mourners: “The Origin shone its light on him.” The reward was a transformed political landscape that allowed a generation to grow up in relative peace, he said. “History will be extremely kind to David, even if life brought many unrelenting pressures and demands. Along with others, he met seemingly impossible challenges with considerable strength of character, intellectual acuity and complete integrity,” McMullen said. The gathering of Sinn Féin’s First Minister-designate Michelle O’Neill, the DUP’s Jeffrey Donaldson, the UUP’s Doug Beattie, the Alliance’s Stephen Farry and the SDLP’s Colum Eastwood was likely to be a short respite in the post-Brexit disputes that have poisoned Northern Ireland politics and paralyzed power-sharing institutions at Stormont. Also in attendance were Northern Ireland Secretary Shailesh Vara, his Labor counterpart Peter Kyle, former Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams and former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, who struck up a friendship with Trimble during the Good Friday negotiations . Former US President Bill Clinton said last week that Trimble’s legacy would live on “in all those who live better lives because of today”. Commentators said it felt like the end of an era after the deaths in the past decade of Martin McGuinness, Ian Paisley, Seamus Mallon and Hume – other key figures in consolidating the Good Friday Agreement. Trimble is survived by his widow, Daphne, and their two daughters and two sons.
