now nobel prize winner key good friday
agreement representative and former
storm and first minister david trimble
he died last night at the age of 77. and
joining us now this morning to discuss
the legacy he leaves behind his
political correspondent with the irish
examiner ether moore good morning to
ethan thank you for joining us this
morning
um can you put in words just how
critical we're saying it all morning
we're seeing it in the papers that david
was in securing that good friday
agreement
absolutely you know we heard even from
tony blair the former prime minister in
the last 24 hours saying that there
would not have been a good friday
agreement without david trumbull and i
think the most interesting thing about
david trump is the journey he went on
you know he began politics as a really
hard liner you know
he was there man in those barricades
during the drum cree standoff and with
the orange order there are photos of
david trumbull arm in arm with ian
paisley at the height of that
so it shows you really you know
the journey he did go on you know his
ability to compromise to sit around a
table with sinn fein
and ultimately he paid the price for it
in his political career um unionism and
the unionist voters did not appreciate
it at the time
the lengths he was willing to go to for
peace i think he has been vindicated now
and we're seeing that from the
outpouring of tributes since but it is
incredibly interesting you know that he
did go from this this hard liner you
know he went into politics because he
was against the stunning dale agreement
and ironically the sonic dale agreement
is now seen as you know the basis or the
blueprint for the good friday agreement
so he entered politics because he was
against sunningdale and ended up being
an architect of the good friday
agreement and that i think like you
referenced some of these iconic pictures
that we saw you know during the the
height of the troubles in the aftermath
and one of them is him and ian paisley
walking down the garavagi road in the
nationalist area because you know they
were against the sunning dale agreement
but you mentioned and he he lose large
in all of our heads because he's so
entitled to the good friday agreement of
what has happened in the north but as he
lost his seat in upper ban after the
good friday agreement in 1998
he knew that this what he was doing was
going to have a persona nagrata in the
unionist community well it just shows
you as well you know the sdlp were on a
slow descent from good friday as well
you know the uup and the sdlp were the
two largest parties at the time and they
both heavily paid the price for
compromises in the aftermath you know
the unionist vote for the good friday
agreement was only 51 percent
so he knew that he this leadership would
take a toll on his own popularity and it
doesn't seem to bother him that much you
know he never gave up on politics he
joined the conservative party um very
shortly after he lost his seat you know
he joined the house of lords he's been a
public servant almost his entire life
but he was very well well aware the kind
of price he was going to pay for it you
know if you read jonathan poyle he was
tony blair's advisor at the time on
northern ireland if you read his book
david tremble just lurched from one
chaos to another and it was within his
own party it was very rarely
arguments with republicans are about to
get here and it was within his own party
that he he was stood a number of
leadership challenges but it was not
easy for him and it was his own
community and what would have been his
own voters that caused him the most
difficulty in the end and we see the
pictures of him there with john hume and
of course they won together they won the
nobel peace prize and that was very
significant
well massive at the time you know the
notion that these you know people two
men from alternate communities had
worked for this you know life-changing
agreement and i think it is a testament
um to david tremble you know the
nationalist community
we're about different in that sense that
you know john hume remained incredibly
popular whereas david trumbull kind of
went in and out of favor but the people
who were there at the time you know the
birthday herons of the world the tony
blair's the meow martins they credit
david chamberlain bertie harren talks
about the rise he used to have with
david trumple constantly and he said he
was a great negotiator and he was you
know he stood as ground all the time but
um
apparently a really affable person as
well outside of politics and i think i'm
embarrassed here and went on to become
good friends as that ham and john hume
but
at the time i would imagine there wasn't
much time for jokes during
a good friday bertie has said that he
was as tough as teeth and we're going to
be speaking to brittany or hearing about
david trimble a little bit later on
because that's that's one thing that i
found you know an insight into a man who
was you know he came to politics from
academia you know he was a law lecturer
in queens university but
you know we see you know members of the
uup and david trimble is you know it's
very staunch and hard line but by all
accounts you know he loved he loved
elvis and he was quite a witty man you
know sides of him that we just wouldn't
see
yeah there's bits and pieces i've even
found from doing my own research and
about you know the first time jerry
adams approached him he tried to make
some kind of joke and he said that david
trumbull just looked him up and died and
said grow up jerry and left the room
he also used to comment that he said he
worried about his image only in the way
that he looked angry a lot of the time
and anger than he actually was and he
used to get quite paranoid avoid his red
face because he used to think that it
made him look more angry
than he actually was and he was always a
pain so they can tell people that he was
actually in an all-right mood it's just
the way his face goes
wow so he had a resting face before
anyone had a resting face yes
essentially he wasn't very worried about
his complexion it's lovely to you know
hear that side of them
but if going back to politics and
recently he did come out against the
northern ireland protocol and was quite
vocal on it also
yeah i mean you need to remember where
david trump
came from you know he was a hard-liner
he was an orange man like this is
definitely you know has his community
feels portrayed by the northern ireland
protocol so i wasn't ultimately
surprised you know he you can be for the
peace process and against the protocol
and he is an all-star unionist at the
end of the day you know doug beatty the
current leader of the ulster unionist
party is also against the protocol but
not with the same kind of ferociousness
and lack of um willingness to compromise
as maybe the dup are so he was very much
he said he felt that the northern
ireland protocol betrayed the good
friday agreement and he felt very let
down by it he wrote
a really interesting essay for the
newsletter that i read this morning um
not that long ago about the northern
ireland protocol and how he felt it
undermined the good friday agreement now
the argument from the other side of
politics is that it actually protects
the good friday agreement but it just as
you know
he was this great compromising man but
the end of the day he was very staunch
in his place and he was an ulcer
unionist and austrian his people are
against the northern ireland protocol
um there'll be a lot said about him and
there has been a lot said about him uh
around the world this morning and
certainly we'll see what can be
happening um up in the north in relation
to his commemorations even more from the
irish examiner thank you so much for
talking to us this morning cheers