David Trimble

I

Introduction

David Trimble, born in 1944, politician in Northern Ireland, former leader of the Ulster Unionist Party (1995-2005), and a former first minister of the Northern Ireland Assembly. The largest Protestant political party in Northern Ireland, the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) supports continued union between Northern Ireland and Great Britain. Trimble shared the 1998 Nobel Peace Prize for his part in a historic 1998 peace agreement between the province’s Protestant majority and Catholic minority.

Trimble was born in Belfast, the son of a civil servant. He was educated at Bangor Grammar School, then studied law at Queen’s University, Belfast. Instead of practicing law, he took a position at the university teaching land and commercial law.

II

Political Career

Trimble was first elected to the British Parliament in 1990 and reelected in subsequent elections. In the months before the UUP’s leadership election in 1995, he played down any liberal tendencies and identified himself with hardline unionist supporters. Reinforcing this stance, in July 1995 Trimble took part in a controversial annual march held by Protestants in a predominantly Roman Catholic area in Drumcree, near Portadown. The march was organized by the Orange Order, a group that seeks continued Protestant supremacy in Northern Ireland. The demonstrators insisted on marching through a mainly Catholic, nationalist area, and threatened violence if police would not allow it. A compromise was arranged to allow a limited number of marchers to pass through the area in silence. The participation of Trimble, along with the more radical unionist leader Ian Paisley, was viewed as highly provocative. However, many UUP members approved of Trimble’s actions. Two months after the march Trimble was elected to succeed party leader James Molyneaux. Trimble defeated four other strong candidates in a hotly contested campaign.

In 1996 Trimble again took part in the demonstration in Drumcree and Portadown. The chief of Northern Ireland’s mainly Protestant police force, the Royal Ulster Constabulary (now the Police Service of Northern Ireland), had banned the march through the Catholic neighborhood. Protestants throughout Northern Ireland responded by setting up roadblocks, burning houses, and attacking police in a standoff that lasted four days. Eventually police reversed their policy and allowed the march. Trimble hailed the event as a victory for the civil rights of Protestants, but Catholics felt betrayed and riots by the Catholic population erupted throughout the province.

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III

Trimble and the Peace Process

In 1997 and 1998 Trimble represented the UUP during peace negotiations in Northern Ireland chaired by former United States senator George Mitchell. Trimble’s efforts, along with those of the heads of the other major political parties in Northern Ireland, contributed greatly to the signing of a historic power-sharing agreement between the province’s Protestant and Catholic factions. The accord, which established a 108-member Northern Ireland Assembly and an executive cabinet to replace direct rule by Britain, was signed on April 10, 1998. It was ratified by popular referendum the next month.

Elections for the new assembly were held in June 1998. The Ulster Unionist Party had the best showing, winning 28 seats (although three UUP members later defected and created their own party, the United Unionist Assembly Party). The Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) of John Hume came in second place, the antiagreement Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) of Ian Paisley was third, and Sinn Fein—the political wing of the Irish Republican Army (IRA)—took fourth. Shortly after the election, Trimble was named first minister (prime minister) of the executive cabinet, known as the Northern Ireland Executive. In October Trimble and John Hume were awarded the 1998 Nobel Peace Prize for their work on the Northern Ireland peace agreement, known as the Good Friday Agreement.

Trimble’s work as first minister was repeatedly hampered by disagreements between the UUP and Sinn Fein over the IRA’s disarmament. These disagreements delayed the formation of the provincial government for more than a year and prompted the British government to suspend the Northern Ireland Assembly on several occasions. To protest IRA inaction, Trimble resigned as first minister in July 2001. Three of the remaining UUP cabinet ministers withdrew from the government in mid-October.

Facing another suspension of the assembly or new elections, the IRA announced in late October 2001 that it had begun to disarm. This move allowed Trimble and the UUP to rejoin the power-sharing government. In November Trimble was reelected first minister of the assembly after narrowly overcoming opposition from hardline Protestant opponents.

Protestant anger toward Sinn Fein and the IRA swelled in 2002 amid allegations that the IRA had continued its military activities while Sinn Fein remained in the provincial government. In early October 2002, following accusations that Sinn Fein and the IRA had engaged in political espionage, Trimble vowed to withdraw the UUP from the cabinet unless the British government intervened. In mid-October Britain announced an indefinite suspension of the provincial assembly and other power-sharing institutions.

Efforts to revive the Northern Ireland Assembly in October 2003 failed when Trimble demanded greater transparency from the IRA over its progress in disarmament. However, elections to the assembly went ahead in November while the body was still suspended, a situation that did not help Trimble’s campaign. Although the UUP lost only one seat, it also lost its position as the largest Unionist party in the assembly to the DUP. Consequently, Trimble lost the right to be first minister if the assembly were revived.

Trimble’s position was further weakened in the 2005 general election to the British Parliament, in which he lost his seat in the House of Commons to the DUP candidate. The UUP fared poorly as well, losing all but one seat in the House of Commons. Following the crushing defeat, Trimble announced that he would resign as leader of the UUP. He blamed the loss of Unionist support for the Good Friday Agreement, and for moderate politics in general, on the failure of the IRA to honor its commitments.