Who Is David Trimble? Cause Of Death? What Happened To Him?

Who Is David Trimble? Cause Of Death? What Happened To Him?David Trimble, Northern Ireland’s first prime minister and a key figure in the Good Friday deal negotiations, has died at the age of 77 after a brief illness. “It is with great sadness that the family of Lord Trimble announce that he has passed away peacefully today after a brief illness,” the statement said.

“I think history will remember him as a politician in a very difficult time as we try to end 30 years of violence, and despite everything that happened, he stood up and made a name for himself in this deal,” Ahern said. “It allows us to bring peace and progress to Northern Ireland.”

“His significant contribution to the peace process and courage to help deliver the Good Friday Agreement leaves a legacy a quarter century later, of which he and his family deserve to be proud.”

Lord Trimble’s successor as UUP leader, Doug Beattie, hailed him as a “political giant, brave statesman, staunch unionist and friend”.

“He has chosen to seize the opportunity for peace that arises and to try to end the violence that has plagued his beloved Northern Ireland for decades.

“He will forever be associated with the leadership he showed in the negotiations leading up to the 1998 Belfast Agreement.”

Once a hardliner within the Ulster Unionist Party, Lord Trimble was elected leader in 1995 and guided his party through the complex negotiations with nationalism that led to the Good Friday Agreement.

However, the peace deal split unions – and many were uneasy about the decision to free paramilitary prisoners.

Sinn Fein’s presence in the northern executive branch has also angered many union voters, and in 2003 Ian Paisley’s more uncompromising Democratic Unionist Party overtook United for the first time in its history.

It was an earth-shattering blow for the party that had long dominated Northern Irish politics, and it never recovered, with Trimble even losing his Upper Bann seat in 2005.

He was promoted to the House of Lords in 2006 and went on to make notable public interventions – backing Brexit in 2016 and revealing in 2019 that he supported same-sex marriage because his daughter married her girlfriend.