David Trimble

Trimble was the son of William and Ivy Trimble, lower-middle class Presbyterians who lived in Bangor, County Down.[6][7] He attended Bangor Grammar School (1956–63).[8] Trimble's paternal grandfather George was born in Easkey, County Sligo, to parents William Trimble and Mary Burns.

He studied at Queen's University of Belfast (QUB) from 1964 to 1968, where he was awarded the McKane Medal for Jurisprudence.[8] He received a first class honours degree (the first at Queen's in three years), becoming a Bachelor of Laws (LL.B).[9][10]

On 8 September 1995, Trimble unexpectedly won election as Leader of the UUP, defeating the front-runner John Taylor and three other candidates.[12][19]

A mural in Northern Ireland supporting the Portadown Orangemen

Trimble's election as Leader came in the aftermath of his role in the Drumcree conflict, in which he led a controversial 1995 Orange Order Protestant march, amidst Nationalist protest, down the predominantly Catholic nationalist Garvaghy Road in Portadown, County Armagh.[6][12] Trimble and Democratic Unionist Party Leader Ian Paisley walked hand-in-hand as the march, banned since 1997, proceeded down the road.[20] Many Irish Catholics viewed it as insensitive, while many Protestants felt that it was a sign that Trimble was defending them.[12]

Shortly after the election, Trimble became the first UUP Leader in 30 years (since Terence O'Neill) to meet with the Taoiseach in Dublin.[12] In 1997, he became the first unionist leader since the partition of Ireland in 1921 to agree to negotiate with Sinn Féin.[21]

Later, in the All-Party negotiations, he led the UUP delegation and sat at the table with Sinn Féin, though in the eight months of the negotiations he never spoke directly to their leader, Gerry Adams.[6][11] The talks were successful, culminating in the Belfast Agreement of 10 April 1998, which resulted in power-sharing with Nationalists.[10][11] On 22 May 1998, voters in Northern Ireland approved the agreement, with 71 per cent in favour.[11]

Trimble was appointed to the Privy Council of the United Kingdom in the 1998 New Year Honours.[22][23]

Trimble at first opposed the appointment of former U.S. Senator George Mitchell as the chairman of multi-party talks, but eventually accepted him. The talks resulted in the Good Friday Agreement (GFA) of April 1998.[24] Trimble was subsequently seen as instrumental in getting his party to accept the accord.[25]

Trimble was elected on 25 June 1998 as a Member of the Northern Ireland Assembly for Upper Bann.[11] He was elected First Minister of Northern Ireland on 1 July 1998.[11]

Arguments over the extent of Provisional Irish Republican Army decommissioning led to repeated disruptions during Trimble's tenure as First Minister. In particular:

• The office of First Minister was suspended from 11 February 2000 to 30 May 2000
• Trimble resigned as First Minister on 1 July 2001 due to the continuing impasse arising from the IRA's refusal of his demands that it decommission its arms, as per the commitments all parties had signed up to in section 7 pt. 3 (page 25) [26] of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement[27] but he was re-elected on 5 November 2001
• The Assembly was suspended from 14 October 2002 until 2007 due to accusations of an IRA spy ring being operated there (the so-called Stormontgate Affair)

In 1998, Tony Blair announced a new judicial inquiry, the Bloody Sunday Inquiry, into the killing of 13 unarmed civil rights marchers in Derry in 1972. A previous investigation, the Widgery Tribunal, into the same event had been discredited. During the debate in the House of Commons, Trimble was one of few dissenting voices. He said "I am sorry to have to say to the Prime Minister that I think that the hope expressed by the Honourable Member for Foyle [John Hume] that this will be part of the healing process is likely to be misplaced. Opening old wounds like this is likely to do more harm than good. The basic facts of the situation are known and not open to dispute."[28] Reporting in 2010, the Saville Inquiry confirmed that all of the 13 killings and 13 woundings were unjustified.[29]

At the general elections of 2005, Trimble was defeated in Upper Bann by the Democratic Unionist Party's David Simpson in his bid for re-election to Parliament in Westminster. The Ulster Unionist Party retained only one seat in Parliament (out of 18 in Northern Ireland) after the 2005 general election, and Trimble resigned the party leadership on 7 May 2005.

On 11 April 2006, it was announced that Trimble would take a seat in the House of Lords as a working life peer.[30] On 21 May 2006 it was announced that he had chosen the geographical designation Lisnagarvey, the original name for his adopted home town of Lisburn. Subsequently, on 2 June 2006, he was created Baron Trimble, of Lisnagarvey in the County of Antrim.[31]

On 18 December 2006, he announced that he would be standing down from the Northern Ireland Assembly at the next election.[32]

Trimble was named an Honorary Patron of the University Philosophical Society, Trinity College, Dublin.

On 17 April 2007, Trimble announced he had decided to join the Conservative Party in order to have greater influence in politics in the United Kingdom.[5] At the same time, however, he stated that he did not intend to campaign against the Ulster Unionist Party, and proposed the idea of a future alliance between the Conservatives and the Ulster Unionists, similar to that which had existed prior to 1974 and the fallout of the Sunningdale Agreement. This idea became reality with the formation of the electoral alliance of Ulster Conservatives and Unionists in late 2008. It was reported that if the Conservatives won the 2010 general election, Trimble would receive a "significant" ministerial role, possibly in the Cabinet.[33] In the event, however, Trimble was not offered any governmental or front bench position following the formation of the Conservative–Liberal Democrat coalition government.

In May 2010, Trimble joined the Friends of Israel Initiative, a non-Jewish international project supporting Israel's right to exist. The initiative, started by former prime minister of Spain José María Aznar, also included former United States Ambassador to the United Nations John R. Bolton, British historian Andrew Roberts, and former Peruvian president Alejandro Toledo.[34] On 29 January 2013, Trimble and Aznar co-wrote an article in The Times condemning Hezbollah and calling on European governments to list it as a terrorist organisation.[35]

In 2016, Trimble supported the Leave side in the UK referendum on EU membership. He said that if he had ever had any doubts about the issue, "his eight years on the EU Select Committees in the House of Lords – which scrutinise the EU's operations – had convinced him of the need to cut ties with Brussels". He cited a study which found that economic growth in the UK reduced after the decision to enter the Common Market, and reduced further when the UK went into the Single Market.[36]

Turkel Commission of Inquiry

Routes of Gaza-bound flotilla (green) and Israeli Navy (orange)

Further information: Legal assessments of the Gaza flotilla raid

On 14 June 2010, Trimble was appointed as an observer to the Israeli special independent public Turkel Commission of Inquiry into the Gaza flotilla raid.[37][38]

The Commission investigated whether Israel's actions in preventing the arrival of ships in Gaza were in accordance with international law.[38] It focused among other things on the security considerations for imposing a naval blockade on the Gaza Strip and the conformity of the naval blockade with the rules of international law; the conformity of the actions during the raid to principles of international law; and the actions taken by those who organised and participated in the flotilla, and their identities.[38]

On the commission were former Israeli Supreme Court Justice, Jacob Turkel, and former Technion University President, Amos Horev, as well two other members added in July 2010. (Bar Ilan University Professor of International Law Shabtai Rosenne also served on the commission from its establishment until his death on 21 September 2010.[39]) In addition, the commission had two foreign observers, Trimble and former head of the Canadian military's judiciary, Judge Advocate General, Ken Watkin, who took part in hearings and discussions, but did not vote on the final conclusions.[40][41] The panel, in January 2011, concluded both Israel's naval blockade of Gaza and the interception of the flotilla "were found to be legally pursuant to the rules of international law".[42]

Trimble's first marriage, to Heather McComb in August 1968, ended in divorce in 1976. There were no children from his first marriage. Trimble married a former student, Daphne Elizabeth (née Orr), in August 1978. They have two sons and two daughters (Richard, Victoria, Nicholas, and Sarah).[7] Lady Trimble served as a member of the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland, and later the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission, before standing unsuccessfully in the UK parliamentary election of May 2010 for the Ulster Conservatives and Unionists.

His son Nicholas is active within the Ulster Unionist Party. In 2016 Nicholas Trimble was co-opted to replace Alexander Redpath as a Councillor representing Downshire West on Lisburn and Castlereagh City Council.

In July 2019, he admitted that he was "forced" to change his position on same-sex marriage and partnerships after voting against them, because of his lesbian daughter Vicky who married her girlfriend Rosalind Stephens in Scotland in 2017. He told peers in the House of Lords "I cannot change that, and I cannot now go around saying that I am opposed to it because I acquiesced to it. There we are."[43][44][45]

Nobel Peace Prize

In October 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.[46] The Nobel Institute noted:

As the leader of the traditionally predominant party in Northern Ireland, David Trimble showed great political courage when, at a critical stage of the process, he advocated solutions which led to the [Belfast (Good Friday)] peace agreement.[46]

At a ceremony in Paris on 8 December 1999, Trimble was appointed an Officier in the Légion d'Honneur by the French Government.[47]

In 2002, Trimble was awarded the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement.[48]

• List of Northern Ireland Members of the House of Lords
• List of Northern Ireland members of the Privy Council

• Godson, Dean (2004). Himself Alone: David Trimble and the Ordeal of Unionism. HarperCollins, ISBN 0-00-257098-X
• Kerr, Michael (2005). Transforming Unionism: David Trimble and the 2005 Election. Irish Academic Press, ISBN 0-7165-3389-8
• MacDonald, Henry (2001). Trimble. Bloomsbury Publishing, ISBN 0-7475-5315-7
• Millar, Frank (2004). David Trimble: The Price of Peace. Liffey Press, ISBN 1-904148-60-3

• David Trimble's official website

• Profile at the Parliament of the United Kingdom
• Contributions in Parliament at Hansard 1803–2005
• Current session contributions in Parliament at Hansard
• Voting record at PublicWhip.org
• Record in Parliament at TheyWorkForYou.com
• Profile at BBC News Democracy Live
• Articles authored at Journalisted
• David Trimble bio Northern Ireland Assembly (Archived)
• Lord Trimble
• David Trimble on Nobelprize.org
• The Search for Peace: David Trimble BBC News
• Maiden Speech : House of Commons – 23 May 1990 UK Parliament
• David Trimble Biography and Interview with American Academy of Achievement
• Appearances on C-SPAN