Hume, John

John Hume (1937–), civil-rights activist and nationalist leader, was born in Derry city on 18 January. He was educated at Saint Columb's College, Derry, and at Maynooth. Returning to Derry, he became a schoolteacher and a leading credit-union organizer, and he was prominent in the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association. In 1969 his displacement of the Nationalist Party leader Eddie McAteer as Stormont MP for Foyle marked the emergence of a more articulate and professional nationalist politics. In 1970 Hume cofounded the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP), which combined civil-rights activists, Belfast laborists, and elements of the crumbling Nationalist Party; Hume became deputy leader under west Belfast MP Gerry Fitt. In 1974 Hume was minister for commerce in the power-sharing executive established under the Sunningdale Agreement. The Ulster Workers' Council strike convinced Hume that an internal Northern Ireland settlement was impossible; the Irish Republic must act as guarantor. In 1979 Hume became SDLP leader and was elected to the European parliament; he emphasized the role of European integration in resolving territorial disputes. In 1983 he became Westminster MP for Foyle. During the 1980s Hume was immensely popular in the Irish Republic, where he was nicknamed "Saint John." His calls for peace and reconciliation were inspiring if repetitive (wags mocked his "single transferable speech"). Hume proved extremely effective at rallying external support for the SDLP through extensive contacts in Europe and the United States. Helped by the desire of the British and Irish governments to contain Sinn Féin after the 1981 hunger strike, Hume played a decisive role in securing the 1985 Anglo-Irish Agreement. Beginning in 1988 Hume entered intermittent negotiations with the Sinn Féin leadership. He was widely criticized for lending respectability to Sinn Féin, but these contacts proved crucial in developing the Northern Ireland peace process of the 1990s. Hume led the SDLP in the negotiations that produced the 1998 Belfast Agreement, and he received the 1998 Nobel Peace Prize (jointly with David Trimble). Thereafter Hume became less prominent; he stayed out of the new executive and resigned his Northern Ireland Assembly seat in 2000. Sinn Féin increasingly overtook the SDLP in popularity among Northern nationalists; Hume's leadership, always autocratic, grew increasingly tired. He resigned as SDLP leader after party setbacks in the 2001 Westminster election. Despite occasional accusations of egoism and insensitivity toward unionists, he was a figure of great political and moral stature and the most effective twentieth-century Northern nationalist leader.

SEE ALSO Adams, Gerry; Northern Ireland: Constitutional Settlement from Sunningdale to Good Friday; Northern Ireland: The United States in Northern Ireland since 1970; Trimble, David; Ulster Politics under Direct Rule

Bibliography

Drower, George. John Hume: Peacemaker. 1995.

Murray, Gerard. John Hume and the SDLP. 1998.

Routledge, Paul. John Hume: A Biography. 1997.

White, Barry. John Hume: Statesman of the Troubles. 1984.

Patrick Maume