Bust of late UUP leader David Trimble to be unveiled in Leinster House in December

A bust of the late Ulster Unionist Party leader David Trimble will be unveiled in Leinster House next month to stand alongside a bust commemorating the late SDLP leader John Hume.

The bust of Mr Hume, who died in 2020, has stood in the modern LH 2000 annex of Leinster House since March this year. The Oireachtas Commission, chaired by Ceann Comhairle Seán Ó Fearghaíl, also decided to commission a bust of Mr Trimble, who died in 2022. He and Mr Hume were regarded as the principal architects of the Belfast Agreement and the peace process.

At a meeting of the commission in June its members were informed that the bust of the late David Trimble would be unveiled in Leinster House in December 2023. Mr Ó Fearghaíl and his parliamentary colleagues on the commission were told that the unveiling would coincide with the 25th anniversary of the award of the Nobel Peace Prize to Mr Trimble and Mr Hume.

“It also noted that discussions were ongoing with the UK House of Commons with a view to having a replica unveiled in Westminster,” the minutes of the meeting stated.

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Mr Hume’s son, John, and Lord Trimble’s wife, Lady Daphne, both attended the unveiling of Mr Hume’s statue in March this year. At the time Mr Ó Fearghaíl said that people of the island of Ireland owed both politicians a debt of gratitude for helping secure the Belfast Agreement, which provided the basis for a period of peace that has lasted for a quarter of a century.

He added that Mr Hume had a very clear vision of how peace could be achieved: non-violence, respect for diversity and equality and protection of fundamental rights. “He devoted his political life to persuading others that his vision was the appropriate one to follow. In doing so he changed the agenda for politics in both parts of Ireland, in Anglo-Irish relations and in the US-Irish relationship.”