John Hume

John Hume (born January 18, 1937 in Derry / Londonderry; † August 3, 2020 there ) was a Northern Irish politician . He was co-founder and chairman of the Social Democratic and Labor Party (SDLP), which works for a non-violent reunification of Ireland. In 1998, John Hume and David Trimble were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts to find a peaceful solution to the Northern Ireland conflict.

biography

Early years and education

John Hume was born in 1937 in Derry, Northern Ireland , the son of a shipyard worker . He lived in modest circumstances and, as a Catholic and Irish child, was confronted from an early age with the oppression of the Irish Catholics by the Protestants, who have their roots in the British part of the United Kingdom. He studied at the National University, where he earned his Master of Arts , then he went as a research student at Trinity College , Cambridge ; at the same time he was a visiting student at the Center of International Affairs at Harvard University . John Hume then became a teacher and began political work in the 1960s, advocating the public interest.

Political work

In 1968 John Hume became the leader of the civil rights movement Non-violent civil rights in Derry, a year later he was elected as an independent candidate to the Northern Irish parliament. In 1970, John Hume and other colleagues founded the SDLP. With her program, which advocates a reunification of Ireland without violence, she positioned herself between the Protestant-unionist Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) and the IRA- affiliated Catholic-Republican Sinn Féin . After the dissolution of the Northern Irish government and the Northern Irish parliament by the central government in London in 1972 and the vote boycotted by Catholics on the future nationality of Northern Ireland, a new regional assembly was elected in 1973, which also included John Hume. The new regional government with limited rights, which for the first time also included representatives of the Catholic minority, belonged to Hume as Minister of Commerce. However, the regional assembly and the government were dissolved again in 1974 following a strike by extremist Protestants.

In Derry, John Hume founded the Inner City Trust, a foundation that consisted of members from both Catholics and Protestants and which has set itself the goal of eliminating the sometimes massive destruction in the inner city of Derry by the civil war. He was also able to ensure that the mayor of the SDLP stronghold Derry was provided by a different party represented on the city council every year.

From 1979 to 2004 John Hume was a member of the European Parliament in Brussels , where he was particularly active in the Committee on Regional Planning and in the Joint Assembly of the European Union and the ACP states , i.e. the developing countries of Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific. He also became co-chair of the Inter-Parliamentary Group on Cultural and Linguistic Minorities. 1979 Hume became party leader of the SDLP. His project to promote the unification of Northern Ireland with the Irish Republic, started in 1982 by founding the New Ireland Forum , failed because of the republican party Sinn Féin. In 1983 he was first elected to the British House of Commons , where he represented the constituency of Foyle until 2005 .

Peace work with the IRA

His willingness to talk to the Sinn Féin party and the IRA underground organization caused a stir in 1985. His talks with Sinn Féin Chairman Gerry Adams , however, contributed to a gradual peace process that culminated in an unconditional IRA ceasefire in 1994, which was kept for 18 months.

In 1998 British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Irish President Bertie Ahern worked out a Northern Ireland peace plan in which Hume played a key role. This became known as the Good Friday Agreement . On August 15, a bomb attack in Omagh, killing 25, by an IRA splinter group shook peace plans again, but reassurance was given by global support for peace efforts and the rejection of further violence from all sides. On December 10th, John Hume and David Trimble, chairman of the UUP, received the Nobel Peace Prize for their intensive efforts in the peace process in Northern Ireland. In 2004, John Hume announced that he would retire from politics entirely, and in 2005 he gave up party chairmanship and lower house mandate to Mark Durkan .

Honors

In addition to the Nobel Peace Prize, Hume received many other awards for his work, including the Hessian Peace Prize , the Four Freedoms Award in the category of freedom of expression and the Sean McBride Prize and the Gandhi Peace Prize of the Indian government. In October 2010, he was voted "the greatest person in the history of Ireland" by the public on Irish television station RTÉ .

In 2012 he was appointed by Pope Benedict XVI. the Grand Commander ( Knight Commander ) of the Pontifical Equestrian Order of St. Gregory the Great for his commitment to Catholic social teaching appointed.

death

Hume died on August 3, 2020 in a Derry nursing home. He was 83 years old.

Web links

Commons : John Hume - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Information from the Nobel Foundation on the 1998 award to John Hume

Entry on John Hume in the European Parliament 's database of MEPs

Individual evidence

↑ Nobel Peace Prize Laureate John Hume dies faz.net, accessed on August 3, 2020
↑ NYT, August 3, 2020
^ Roosevelt Institute, List of Prize Winners ( March 25, 2015 memento in the Internet Archive ), accessed December 14, 2012
↑ The Irish Times : Hume wins 'Ireland's greatest' award , October 23, 2010
↑ The Irish Times , "Papal knighthood conferred on John Hume for peace work," July 7, 2012
↑ Mayor of Derry on August 3, 2020
↑ Irish Times, August 3, 2020

personal data
SURNAME	Hume, John
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Northern Irish politician, Member of the House of Commons, MEP and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate
DATE OF BIRTH	January 18, 1937
PLACE OF BIRTH	Derry
DATE OF DEATH	August 3, 2020
Place of death	Derry

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