David Trimble

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The Lord Trimble

William David Trimble, Baron Trimble, PC (born 15 October 1944) is a Northern Irish politician who served as leader of the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) and the first First Minister of Northern Ireland. He shared the 1998 Nobel Peace Prize with John Hume of the Social Democratic and Labour Party. In 2005 he was defeated in the British general election and resigned the leadership of the UUP soon afterwards. On 6 June 2006 he became a member of the House of Lords.

He is married to his former student, Daphne Orr, and they have four children. He has no children from his first marriage, which was dissolved.

Education and Early Career

He was educated in at Bangor Grammar School in Bangor, County Down, and at the Queen's University of Belfast, where he received a First class honours degree, becoming a Bachelor of Laws (LL.B). He qualified as a barrister in 1969 and became to lecture in law at QUB, becoming a Senior Lecturer in 1977. He served as head of the Department of Commercial and Property Law from 1980 to 1989.

David Trimble became involved with the Vanguard Progressive Unionist Party in the early 1970's and ran unsuccessfully for the party in the 1973 Assembly elections for North Down. In 1974 he acted as legal adviser to the Ulster Workers' Council during the paramilitary-controlled Ulster Workers' Strike, during which loyalist paramilitaries intimidated thousands of utility workers. He was elected to the Northern Ireland Convention in 1975 as a Vanguard Progressive Unionist Party member for South Belfast and for a time he served as the party's joint-deputy leader, along with the Ulster Defence Association's Glenn Barr. The party had been established by William Craig to oppose sharing power with Irish Nationalists, and to prevent closer ties with the Republic of Ireland, however Trimble was one of those to back Craig when the party split over Craig's proposal to allow voluntary power sharing with the SDLP. He also contributed to the Ulster Volunteer Force magazine Combat at this time.

When the Vanguard party collapsed he joined the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) in 1978 and was elected one of the four party secretaries. He ran unsuccessfully for the UUP in the 1981 council elections in the Lisburn area. He was elected to Westminster in a by-election in Upper Bann in 1990. He was one of the few British politicians who urged support for the Bosnians during the civil war in the 1990s. His support for an interventionist foreign policy is demonstrated by his membership of the Henry Jackson Society.

Leadership of Ulster Unionist Party

In 1995 Trimble was unexpectedly elected leader of the UUP, defeating the front-runner John Taylor. Trimble's election as party leader came in the aftermath of his leading role in the controversial Orange Order march, amidst Nationalist protest, down the predominantly Nationalist Garvaghy Road in Portadown, County Armagh. Trimble and Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) leader Ian Paisley were famously filmed walking hand-in-hand as the march proceeded down the road, in a controversial march that has been banned since 1997. This has been labeled the Drumcree "Victory Jig" by some commentators who are quick to point out that while Trimble gained immediate credibility just before the leadership election he lost it longterm. Most recently the "Victory Jig" episode was cited as an example of Trimble "manipulating" the Orange Order "to get the leadership of the Ulster Unionist Party."

First Minister of Northern Ireland

Trimble at first opposed the appointment of former US Senator George J. Mitchell as the chairman of the multi-party talks which resulted in the Belfast (Good Friday) Agreement (GFA) of 1998. Trimble was subsequently seen as instrumental in getting his party to accept the accord. Later in 1998, Trimble and John Hume were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts to find a peaceful solution to the conflict in Northern Ireland. Trimble was elected to the Northern Ireland Assembly and subsequently became First Minister of Northern Ireland. However arguments over the extent of PIRA decommissioning meant that Trimble's tenure as First Minister was repeatedly interrupted. In particular:

• The office of First Minister was suspended from February 11 2000 to May 30 2000.
• Trimble resigned as First Minister on July 1, 2001, but was re-elected on November 5 of the same year.
• The Assembly has been suspended since October 14, 2002 due to accusations an IRA spyring being operated there (the so-called Stormontgate Affair).

At the general elections of 2005, David Trimble failed in his bid for re-election to Parliament in Westminster when he was defeated by the Democratic Unionist Party's David Simpson. The Ulster Unionist Party retained only one seat in Parliament (out of eighteen in Northern Ireland) after the 2005 General Election, and David Trimble resigned as leader of the party on May 7, 2005.

On April 11, 2006, it was announced that Trimble will take a seat in the House of Lords as a working life peer.[1]. On May 21 2006 it was announced that he had chosen the geographical designation Lisnagarvey, the original name for his adopted home town of Lisburn. On 2 June he was created Baron Trimble, of Lisnagarvey in the County of Antrim.

Death Threats

Trimble has recently complained to the Metropolitan Police chief Sir Ian Blair over death threats made against him on the Real Irish Republican Army (RIRA) aligned, 32 County Sovereignty Committee (32CSM) bulletin board. He said he was copying the letter to the British Prime Minister, home secretary, Northern Ireland secretary and Scottish secretary. The initial posting was made by "Trimble murder suggestions" on 19 May 2006.

External links

• Guardian Politics Ask Aristotle - David Trimble
• TheyWorkForYou.com - David Trimble MP
• Nobel Peace Prize for 1998 - Lecture by David Trimble
• BBC News - The Search for Peace: David Trimble

See also

• Victory Jig

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