David Trimble dead – Political heavyweight & co-architect of Good Friday Agreement dies peacefully after short illness

FORMER first minister of Northern Ireland Lord David Trimble has died at the age of 77.

The notorious Good Friday Agreement negotiator and Nobel Peace Prize winner passed away after battling a short illness.

A statement from the Ulster Unionist Party said: “It is with great sadness that the family of Lord Trimble announce that he passed away peacefully earlier today following a short illness.”

He led the talks on the 1997 Good Friday Agreement, which ended decades of violence in Northern Ireland.

Lord Trimble’s efforts earned him and nationalist counterpart John Hume the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1998.

Ex-Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern paid tribute to the politician while hailing his lasting legacy.

He said: “I think history will remember him as a politician who, in a really difficult time, when we were trying to end 30 years of violence, in spite of everything, stood up and put his name to that agreement.

“That allowed us to bring peace to Northern Ireland and allowed us to progress.”

Lord Trimble was the first person to be elected as first minister of Northern Ireland, remaining in office from 1998 to 2002.

After dipping his toe in the world of politics, Lord Trimble was appointed as the MP for Upper Bann in 1990.

He was unexpectedly elected as leader of the Ulster Unionist Party in 1995 and become an instrumental figure in peace talks.

The respected Irishman led the UUP for a decade before losing his seat to a member of the Democratic Unionist Party.

Lord Trimble then went on to join the Tory party and bagged a seat in the House of Lords as Baron Trimble of Lisnagarvey.

He took on former UK Prime Minister Theresa May over the controversial Brexit deal she had struck with the EU in 2019.

The ex-first minister of Northern Ireland said the hated Irish backstop was illegal and would tie the country to the EU for decades.

Lord Trimble married Daphne Elizabeth in August 1978, who he shares two sons and two daughters with.

His wife, known as Lady Trimble, served as a member of the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland, and later the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission.

She made an unsuccessful bid in the UK parliamentary election in 2010 for the Ulster Conservatives and Unionists.

Their youngest son, Nicholas, went on to become an active figure within the Ulster Unionist Party.