Remembering a Peacemaker: Longford pays tribute to the late John Hume

The Northern Ireland Peace Process would not have been brought about in such resolute and steadfast fashion without the input of John Hume, according to Longford based author and fellow founding SDLP member Seamus McRory.

The retired schoolteacher made the contention after the death of his long term friend and political comrade over the weekend at the age of 83.

Mr McRory, whose friendship with the former SDLP dates back over 50 years, said the part played by the Nobel laureate would never be erased from the island of Ireland’s socio-political psyche.

“Without John, there wouldn’t have been the Peace Process that we see today,” he said, while referring to his own 2008 poem on the well documented politician dubbed ‘John Hume-Peacemaker Supreme.’

“He was the one unifying force who was able to connect with the political classes in the UK, America and he was also the first great European who brought the Northern Ireland problem onto the world stage.”

A Derry born descendant himself, the father of two is no stranger to channeling those accolades through a series of various publications, the most notable of which included a chapter dedicated to Mr Hume in his 2013 book entitled ‘The Dove of Peace’.

Mr McRory recalled first rubbing shoulders with Mr Hume in 1965 when the then civil rights activist was campaigning for a university in Derry.

Headstrong and single-minded in his determination to exact a lasting and unshakable peace process across the border, Mr McRory said Mr Hume was willing to sacrifice his own political reputation in pursuit of a permanent end to violence.

“He was a man who had a vision, a man on a mission who knew how to go about it,” he said, while citing a 1972 policy document ‘Towards a New Ireland’ as a means to doing just that.

A polished singer in his own right, Mr Hume was also a man who didn’t flinch even when under the most extreme pressure from both sides of the nationalist and unionist divide.

“He had no time for the nitty, gritty,” added Mr McRory.

“His mission was to bring about peace and he did that but I don’t think we would have the situation we have to do had it not been for John Hume.”

Those fruits of those endeavours as evidenced by the Good Friday Agreement in 1997 would later be recognised closer to home when Mr Hume was bestowed with the Freedom of Longford town.

It’s then mayor, Paul Connell, said the idea had been spawned following a chance meeting with the father of five in the Dáil.

“I had been with a few friends of mine from Ardagh and invited to the Dáil by the late Peter Kelly,” recalled Mr Connell.

“I remembered John Hume came over to talk to us and after I congratulated him on his work in the peace process I told him then that my one specific wish as mayor was to award him the Freedom of Longford.

“His response was: ‘I would love to’ and after bringing the matter officially before the Town Council it was unanimously endorsed which underlined the mark of the man and the sheer level of respect he was held in.”

PHOTO GALLERY | Looking back at when the late John Hume was bestowed with the Freedom of Longford