0:00:12 > 0:00:16In the past 30 years of our conflict, there have been
0:00:16 > 0:00:19many moments of deep depression and outright horror.
0:00:21 > 0:00:24Many people wondered
0:00:24 > 0:00:29whether the words of our poet WB Yeats might come true.
0:00:30 > 0:00:35"Too long a sacrifice can make a stone of the heart".
0:00:37 > 0:00:41In American terms, we would think of him as a founding father.
0:00:41 > 0:00:43It's probably the greatest compliment
0:00:43 > 0:00:48that an American could convey to someone else.
0:00:48 > 0:00:52Endlessly, our people
0:00:52 > 0:00:55gathered their strength to face another day,
0:00:55 > 0:00:57and they never stopped encouraging
0:00:57 > 0:01:02their leaders to find the courage to resolve this situation
0:01:02 > 0:01:07so that our children could look to the future with a smile of hope.
0:01:11 > 0:01:15I never regarded John as sort of of a particular party in that sense.
0:01:15 > 0:01:20I mean, he was kind of aside from it all, maybe even above it.
0:01:22 > 0:01:25Hard to reconcile some of the narrowness of his approach
0:01:25 > 0:01:29to the breadth of his intellectual capacity.
0:01:30 > 0:01:33That, and selfishness, I suppose, went hand in hand.
0:01:52 > 0:01:56I believe this to be the best opportunity for lasting peace
0:01:56 > 0:01:58that I have seen in the last 20 years.
0:01:59 > 0:02:05It's his desire to cast the least shadow which makes him so great.
0:02:09 > 0:02:12He's one of the outstanding people of modern times.
0:02:15 > 0:02:19I will now end with a quotation of total hope,
0:02:19 > 0:02:21the words of a former Laureate,
0:02:21 > 0:02:25one of my great heroes of this century, Martin Luther King Jr.
0:02:25 > 0:02:29"We shall overcome."
0:02:29 > 0:02:34# We shall overcome
0:02:34 > 0:02:42# We shall overcome some day... #
0:02:54 > 0:02:59While on holiday with his family in Donegal in the summer of 1987,
0:02:59 > 0:03:03John Hume found himself challenged by a close friend of Gerry Adams,
0:03:03 > 0:03:06who urged him to talk to the Sinn Fein leader.
0:03:06 > 0:03:09Hume was about to take the first step
0:03:09 > 0:03:13in what would later become known as the Northern Ireland peace process.
0:03:13 > 0:03:18We had been on holidays in Gweedore,
0:03:18 > 0:03:22and Paddy McGrory had a summer house there.
0:03:22 > 0:03:28And he would have been very friendly with Gerry Adams,
0:03:28 > 0:03:33and I think he was trying to get through to John
0:03:33 > 0:03:37that Sinn Fein was anxious to get involved in politics.
0:03:37 > 0:03:38That would have been
0:03:38 > 0:03:43the first time that I heard that kind of conversation.
0:03:48 > 0:03:52Enniskillen happened when we were talking.
0:03:52 > 0:03:54You know, most people don't know that.
0:03:54 > 0:03:58But I think both of us saw it as something which justified
0:03:58 > 0:04:00the need to talk, as opposed to
0:04:00 > 0:04:06"Oh, this is undermining what we're doing".
0:04:06 > 0:04:11The very purpose of our talks was to try and end all violence.
0:04:19 > 0:04:23The secret talks would continue for almost six years,
0:04:23 > 0:04:25until in the spring of 1993,
0:04:25 > 0:04:31Adams was spotted entering the Hume family home above Derry's Bogside.
0:04:31 > 0:04:35John Hume, the leader of Irish nationalism, was publicly castigated
0:04:35 > 0:04:39for meeting with the political pariah that was Gerry Adams.
0:04:40 > 0:04:45It was helpful that John Hume was talking to Gerry Adams,
0:04:45 > 0:04:46it was helpful that he was doing so.
0:04:46 > 0:04:50On the other hand, for every action there is a reaction,
0:04:50 > 0:04:53and the reaction caused us some difficulties.
0:04:57 > 0:05:00I had many rows with him about it.
0:05:00 > 0:05:02I raised it at party meetings.
0:05:02 > 0:05:07There were some who felt the same way as I did.
0:05:07 > 0:05:10Now, I am standing here and telling the Government
0:05:10 > 0:05:15that I believe that we have a real process of lasting peace
0:05:15 > 0:05:20and a total cessation of violence on the basis that I have just stated,
0:05:20 > 0:05:25and I'm saying to them, hurry up and deal with it.
0:05:25 > 0:05:26We sort of wondered
0:05:26 > 0:05:29"What on earth is he doing?", because by doing this,
0:05:29 > 0:05:35he's blurring the distinction between their two parties.
0:05:35 > 0:05:39And he's blurring the moral basis on which he's engaging in politics.
0:05:41 > 0:05:44There were certainly people who had a doubt
0:05:44 > 0:05:47about what he was doing.
0:05:47 > 0:05:51Was it right, was it wrong? That was in private.
0:05:51 > 0:05:53In public, he was vilified.
0:05:57 > 0:06:00I wanted total peace on our streets,
0:06:00 > 0:06:02and I knew that talking to Gerry Adams
0:06:02 > 0:06:08was a major way of achieving that, by working with him to persuade him
0:06:08 > 0:06:11to adopt purely political methods.
0:06:11 > 0:06:13And that's why I talked to Gerry Adams.
0:06:15 > 0:06:20Once it was discovered, I mean, all hell broke loose
0:06:20 > 0:06:23and the media went into a frenzy.
0:06:25 > 0:06:28And, you know, he lost weight.
0:06:28 > 0:06:31He was finding it difficult to sleep.
0:06:31 > 0:06:35So the stress was just unbelievable.
0:06:39 > 0:06:43But in speaking with Adams, Hume had made himself a target
0:06:43 > 0:06:45for Loyalist paramilitaries.
0:06:45 > 0:06:47Senior Loyalists took him
0:06:47 > 0:06:50as a threat, you know, a potential threat.
0:06:50 > 0:06:53So when he actually stood up and said he was talking to Gerry Adams,
0:06:53 > 0:06:55being involved with the IRA,
0:06:55 > 0:06:58to people who fought the fight for so long,
0:06:58 > 0:07:00he made himself a legitimate target.
0:07:14 > 0:07:17Hume believed political progress could be made
0:07:17 > 0:07:19if the violence could be stopped.
0:07:21 > 0:07:23But in October 1993,
0:07:23 > 0:07:26the IRA massacred innocents on the Shankill Road.
0:07:28 > 0:07:32In retaliation, Loyalists shot dead eight men in a bar.
0:07:35 > 0:07:37Party members were ringing up
0:07:37 > 0:07:40and sort of saying, you know, "Those talks just have to stop".
0:07:42 > 0:07:45That particular week,
0:07:45 > 0:07:52when Gerry Adams carried the coffin, was just dreadful.
0:07:52 > 0:07:54The phone was going non-stop,
0:07:54 > 0:07:59again concerned for John, but also wondering "Where is this all going?"
0:08:01 > 0:08:07Greysteel, probably because it was a culmination of so many horrors...
0:08:10 > 0:08:13At the burial, John just broke down.
0:08:13 > 0:08:17We were all breaking down, but to see a man,
0:08:17 > 0:08:20a very strong man breaking down...
0:08:20 > 0:08:25And I remember then a girl coming up to him
0:08:25 > 0:08:28and saying "John, the peace talks have to go on."
0:08:29 > 0:08:32"We talked about you last night around",
0:08:32 > 0:08:35I think it was her father's funeral,
0:08:35 > 0:08:38"and we said it's the one hope for the future
0:08:38 > 0:08:40"that the peace talks must go on."
0:08:47 > 0:08:50If the implication from the honourable gentleman's remarks
0:08:50 > 0:08:54are that we should sit down
0:08:54 > 0:08:56and talk with Mr Adams and the Provisional IRA,
0:08:56 > 0:08:59I can only say to the honourable gentleman,
0:08:59 > 0:09:01that would turn my stomach over
0:09:01 > 0:09:04and that of most people in this House, and we will not do it.
0:09:09 > 0:09:12But unknown to Hume, both the British
0:09:12 > 0:09:15and Irish governments were also speaking with the IRA.
0:09:15 > 0:09:18We were already engaged in private conversations,
0:09:18 > 0:09:22and although one often despaired about where they would go,
0:09:22 > 0:09:26it was important we did that if we were going to create peace.
0:09:26 > 0:09:30If we hadn't had the secret channel to the IRA,
0:09:30 > 0:09:33if we hadn't had those talks and kept them secret,
0:09:33 > 0:09:37there would have been no peace process.
0:09:38 > 0:09:43Exasperated by the contradictory public and private positions
0:09:43 > 0:09:46of the British government, a former Derry priest who,
0:09:46 > 0:09:49along with others, was acting as an intermediary
0:09:49 > 0:09:51between London and the IRA,
0:09:51 > 0:09:54decided to reveal to Hume the full extent of the talks.
0:09:56 > 0:09:58We made a decision that Hume
0:09:58 > 0:10:04was the only person who could...
0:10:04 > 0:10:07who could become the natural political leader of this situation,
0:10:07 > 0:10:10that there were negotiations between the British and the IRA,
0:10:10 > 0:10:16that the Irish were now beginning to negotiate with the IRA,
0:10:16 > 0:10:18because the British had told us.
0:10:23 > 0:10:26It was time for all this back channel stuff to stop.
0:10:26 > 0:10:30This had to go out into the mainstream of politics,
0:10:30 > 0:10:35This was where the next natural stage was going to go. And...
0:10:38 > 0:10:44..Hume had to lead it and take that charge and he had to...
0:10:47 > 0:10:53..take the Adams and the McGuinnesses of this world with him.
0:10:53 > 0:10:56Now, they think, they heap him with praise.
0:10:57 > 0:11:00But they don't remember that they nearly broke him
0:11:00 > 0:11:02during those nine months.
0:11:04 > 0:11:10Finally, in August 1994, Hume got his hands on the prize.
0:11:10 > 0:11:14The IRA and Loyalist ceasefires ended a generation of violence
0:11:14 > 0:11:17and ultimately led to the Good Friday Agreement.
0:11:19 > 0:11:22Hume's decision to talk to Adams
0:11:22 > 0:11:24had broken the political stalemate.
0:11:26 > 0:11:30But it would come at great cost to his party, and to his own health.
0:11:46 > 0:11:50REPORTER: 'Mrs Conaghan lives in the terraced houses of Anne Street,
0:11:50 > 0:11:52'and they don't amount to much.
0:11:52 > 0:11:55'But they are enough to show what's wrong in this divided city.
0:11:55 > 0:11:59'Protestants, in the minority, call it Londonderry,
0:11:59 > 0:12:02'and most of them vote Unionist.
0:12:02 > 0:12:03'Catholics, in the majority,
0:12:03 > 0:12:07'call it Derry, and most of them vote Nationalist.
0:12:07 > 0:12:09'Anne Street is all Catholic.'
0:12:12 > 0:12:17I fought for 18 years in the army for liberty and freedom,
0:12:17 > 0:12:20but simply because I'm a Catholic, I can't get freedom.
0:12:25 > 0:12:27To understand Hume, you have to understand
0:12:27 > 0:12:29he was born into a community
0:12:29 > 0:12:32that were essentially the losers in the accommodation
0:12:32 > 0:12:37that happened between London and Dublin after the war of independence.
0:12:37 > 0:12:40He found the Nationalist community
0:12:40 > 0:12:43had sort of two reactions to that situation.
0:12:43 > 0:12:48One was the abstentionism of the Nationalist Party.
0:12:48 > 0:12:52The other was the militancy of the IRA,
0:12:52 > 0:12:56I suppose what biologists would call fight or flight.
0:12:56 > 0:13:00Hume knew instinctively and indeed from observation as well,
0:13:00 > 0:13:05that neither of these approaches was going to be really productive.
0:13:05 > 0:13:07And single-handedly, he set about creating
0:13:07 > 0:13:10and defining a middle ground.
0:13:15 > 0:13:18John Hume's first calling was to the priesthood,
0:13:18 > 0:13:22but having gained his degree at Maynooth College outside Dublin,
0:13:22 > 0:13:24he returned home to become a teacher.
0:13:25 > 0:13:28He taught me for two years. He came at it
0:13:28 > 0:13:33in a way that was provocative to me,
0:13:33 > 0:13:34in that he challenged me.
0:13:36 > 0:13:43One of my big memories is that he made us debate quite a lot.
0:13:43 > 0:13:48And one of the debates he made us do was that we were to debate
0:13:48 > 0:13:51that Nationalists should join the Unionist party
0:13:51 > 0:13:53and transform it from within.
0:13:53 > 0:13:56Now, that was kind of like mind-blowing to someone like me.
0:14:00 > 0:14:02REPORTER: 'Allied to unemployment,
0:14:02 > 0:14:04'housing is one of Derry's root problems.
0:14:04 > 0:14:09'A key factor in political control in Derry has always been housing
0:14:09 > 0:14:10'and the allocation of housing,
0:14:10 > 0:14:14'and over the years, this has been controlled by the party in power.'
0:14:16 > 0:14:18Hume began drawing attention
0:14:18 > 0:14:20to the injustices he saw around him in Derry.
0:14:22 > 0:14:24He wrote newspaper articles
0:14:24 > 0:14:28and, already aware of the growing power of television,
0:14:28 > 0:14:30he helped produce two documentaries.
0:14:30 > 0:14:34Derry in those days was in a very, very distressed state.
0:14:34 > 0:14:39The housing situation was appalling.
0:14:40 > 0:14:44You could find houses with 30 people,
0:14:44 > 0:14:4935 people all in one house, with one toilet in the back.
0:14:52 > 0:14:59In this film, he talked about the two traditions coming together,
0:14:59 > 0:15:03and it would only be when the two traditions came together
0:15:03 > 0:15:05that Derry would reach its full potential.
0:15:10 > 0:15:12The two traditions must meet.
0:15:12 > 0:15:15Derry has no future unless there is a change
0:15:15 > 0:15:19in the minds and hearts of people, for Derry is the mother of us all.
0:15:28 > 0:15:33The poverty in Derry moved Hume and a number of others to set up
0:15:33 > 0:15:37the first ever financial co-operative in Northern Ireland.
0:15:37 > 0:15:41I think the credit union movement, for example, is an ideal vehicle
0:15:41 > 0:15:44to spread a spirit of self-help in the community,
0:15:44 > 0:15:47because it can involve the whole community at every level.
0:15:49 > 0:15:52I knew how difficult life in poverty was for people,
0:15:52 > 0:15:54because they couldn't borrow money,
0:15:54 > 0:15:57so they had to go to pawnshops
0:15:57 > 0:16:00and put their goods, etc into it, and of course
0:16:00 > 0:16:03if they got loans of money, it was very highly costly.
0:16:03 > 0:16:05So I thought the Credit Union movement
0:16:05 > 0:16:09was the right answer for dealing with that.
0:16:09 > 0:16:11My first memory of John Hume
0:16:11 > 0:16:17is as a teenager. I think I was about maybe 13 or 14.
0:16:17 > 0:16:20My grandmother had taken me to a public meeting
0:16:20 > 0:16:25to do with this radical new idea called a credit union.
0:16:25 > 0:16:28And I listened while this man,
0:16:28 > 0:16:33who I didn't know was going to become the John Hume of the future
0:16:33 > 0:16:36in terms of the much broader political stage,
0:16:36 > 0:16:40while this then still relatively young man explained to us
0:16:40 > 0:16:43what seemed almost an exotic concept
0:16:43 > 0:16:46at that time, the idea of people power.
0:16:48 > 0:16:53Hume helped set up credit unions across Northern Ireland.
0:16:53 > 0:16:57And, for a time, Unionists in Derry welcomed his leadership abilities
0:16:57 > 0:16:58as he led a campaign
0:16:58 > 0:17:01to bring Northern Ireland's second university to the city.
0:17:05 > 0:17:09The one wonderful thing about the University for Derry campaign
0:17:09 > 0:17:14was that it brought all the citizens of the city together.
0:17:15 > 0:17:20There was a huge motorcade to Stormont
0:17:20 > 0:17:25to protest against the decision to place the university in Coleraine.
0:17:25 > 0:17:28He was the chairman of that committee,
0:17:28 > 0:17:32and that kind of catapulted him
0:17:32 > 0:17:34into being the spokesperson for the city.
0:17:38 > 0:17:42I want them to show that law is fair, which it isn't at the moment.
0:17:42 > 0:17:45I want them to grant us our one man, one vote.
0:17:45 > 0:17:47I want them to end gerrymander.
0:17:47 > 0:17:50# We shall overcome... #
0:17:50 > 0:17:54On the streets of Derry, there was growing agitation
0:17:54 > 0:17:56at Unionist intransigence.
0:17:56 > 0:17:59The protestors were inspired by uprisings around the world.
0:17:59 > 0:18:01Hume drew his influence
0:18:01 > 0:18:04from the leader of the civil rights movement in America.
0:18:05 > 0:18:08I have a dream
0:18:08 > 0:18:13that one day this nation will rise up...
0:18:14 > 0:18:17..live out the true meaning of its creed.
0:18:19 > 0:18:22We hold these truths to be self evident
0:18:22 > 0:18:24that all men are created equal.
0:18:31 > 0:18:34I was really in my 20s
0:18:34 > 0:18:37when I started to figure out
0:18:37 > 0:18:40this force of nature,
0:18:40 > 0:18:41that lived so close by, really.
0:18:43 > 0:18:48Ironically, it was after studying the non-violence
0:18:48 > 0:18:54of Dr King in the civil rights movement in the US,
0:18:54 > 0:18:55which I'd been reading on
0:18:55 > 0:19:00and I was talking about Martin Luther King with somebody
0:19:00 > 0:19:04and they said, sure, he lives in your country right now
0:19:04 > 0:19:05and he's still there
0:19:05 > 0:19:09I said, "You mean John Hume?" They said "Yes, of course!"
0:19:09 > 0:19:16Just as courageous, just as strategic, just as vital for peace.
0:19:16 > 0:19:19Free at last, free at last,
0:19:19 > 0:19:22thank God almighty, we are free at last!
0:19:28 > 0:19:32Watching those people, their calm dignity and their courage
0:19:32 > 0:19:37and I think John was, like most of the rest of us,
0:19:37 > 0:19:40you know, utterly convinced, this is the right way to go.
0:19:40 > 0:19:44This is how you preserve the integrity of your moral case.
0:19:48 > 0:19:51Those things were seeping back home.
0:19:51 > 0:19:54Those things were catching on with young people.
0:19:54 > 0:19:58Let's not forget, we were young people then.
0:19:58 > 0:20:02If you start trouble today, you're only creating trouble.
0:20:02 > 0:20:05Now, have a bit of sense, have a bit of sense.
0:20:05 > 0:20:08Hume was being drawn into the street protests
0:20:08 > 0:20:12and with his instinctive appreciation of the power of television,
0:20:12 > 0:20:16he provided the emerging civil rights campaign with a new edge.
0:20:19 > 0:20:22I have always said that Hume was the master of television.
0:20:22 > 0:20:25He took that and he worked it to the maximum.
0:20:25 > 0:20:28He had a slow, steady delivery,
0:20:28 > 0:20:32a very decisive, incisive delivery,
0:20:32 > 0:20:35and he analysed things perfectly.
0:20:35 > 0:20:40The injustice, he was able to articulate that perfectly.
0:20:40 > 0:20:43It is not our intention, nor never has been our intention
0:20:43 > 0:20:46to enter into any conflict,
0:20:46 > 0:20:49especially into armed conflict with our fellow citizens.
0:20:49 > 0:20:52'It was refreshing to see someone like Hume,'
0:20:52 > 0:20:53who was rock solid,
0:20:53 > 0:20:59a stayed approach to his television work, but reliable.
0:20:59 > 0:21:02He never made a gaff at that stage,
0:21:02 > 0:21:07and was able to, as I say, put some shape
0:21:07 > 0:21:12on what the headless chickens were all trying to do or saying they were trying to do.
0:21:22 > 0:21:26John Hume was born in the Glen area of Derry,
0:21:26 > 0:21:31the eldest of seven children crammed into a small terraced house,
0:21:31 > 0:21:36a situation typical right across the city.
0:21:38 > 0:21:42Housing, like everything else in this area, is submitted to a political test
0:21:42 > 0:21:44and we failed the political test.
0:21:48 > 0:21:52John grew up in fairly straightened, modest circumstances in Derry.
0:21:52 > 0:21:56You know, a large family with very little coming in,
0:21:56 > 0:22:00his father and mother on social security benefits.
0:22:00 > 0:22:07John escaped from the straightened circumstances of fairly sheer poverty
0:22:07 > 0:22:09because of the quality of his mind.
0:22:12 > 0:22:15I was very lucky I passed the 11 plus exam in its very first year.
0:22:15 > 0:22:18I remember going home and saying to my mother and father,
0:22:18 > 0:22:22"I'm going to the college". They said, "Only the rich go there".
0:22:22 > 0:22:25I said, "No, I passed an exam and the government's going to pay for me".
0:22:29 > 0:22:35That generation was a very, very important watershed in the history of Northern Ireland.
0:22:35 > 0:22:39They were articulate. They were determined. They were confident.
0:22:39 > 0:22:41They were not bowed down
0:22:41 > 0:22:47or they were not cowed by the kind of environment in which they found themselves,
0:22:47 > 0:22:49particularly as Catholics in an environment
0:22:49 > 0:22:54that was politically hostile to them and to their ambitions.
0:22:54 > 0:22:57So he belonged to that generation
0:22:57 > 0:23:02which showed an extraordinary confidence and leadership.
0:23:05 > 0:23:11Any person who wishes to parade or hold a meeting
0:23:11 > 0:23:16is quite at liberty to do so, provided that he holds it
0:23:16 > 0:23:22other than in an area specified in the order.
0:23:26 > 0:23:29On October 5th 1968,
0:23:29 > 0:23:33the toxic mix of intransigence, anger and the new power of television
0:23:33 > 0:23:38created an event that changed the course of history in Northern Ireland.
0:23:39 > 0:23:43Ladies and gentlemen, please!
0:23:43 > 0:23:45- Stand back!- God save us!
0:23:45 > 0:23:47HE CRIES OUT
0:23:57 > 0:24:01Hume believed in the power of peaceful protest
0:24:01 > 0:24:03and pictures of campaigners being attacked by police
0:24:03 > 0:24:08helped transform the civil rights association into a mass movement.
0:24:16 > 0:24:22# We shall overcome...
0:24:22 > 0:24:28# We shall overcome some day... #
0:24:28 > 0:24:32The events of October 5th would ultimately change Hume's life.
0:24:32 > 0:24:36He was thrust to the forefront of the civil rights campaign
0:24:36 > 0:24:39as the people of Northern Ireland fast approached
0:24:39 > 0:24:41the crossroads of peace and violence.
0:24:41 > 0:24:44# We shall overcome some day... #
0:24:47 > 0:24:52Show your absolute discipline by leaving the streets absolutely clear.
0:24:52 > 0:24:56I think at the time John was never going to join with the likes of me
0:24:56 > 0:25:00and make a united front with the radical left. That's not the way he was inclined.
0:25:00 > 0:25:05And also, I think John believed from the beginning that the way forward
0:25:05 > 0:25:07was to unite the Catholic Nationalist community.
0:25:10 > 0:25:13John Hume, who's well known in the houses that he visits,
0:25:13 > 0:25:19for he has, in effect, become the leader of the civil rights campaign in Derry.
0:25:20 > 0:25:25In February 1969, as Hume was elected to the Stormont Parliament,
0:25:25 > 0:25:28he was also coming to the attention of the Dublin government.
0:25:31 > 0:25:35I think Jack Lynch and Paddy Hillary began to realise
0:25:35 > 0:25:39this was a voice, not just of sanity
0:25:39 > 0:25:44but this was a voice of construction.
0:25:44 > 0:25:49He had a concept, he had a vision.
0:25:49 > 0:25:51The Citizen's Action Committee as a body
0:25:51 > 0:25:55has amongst its membership, people of every political persuasion.
0:25:55 > 0:25:59The chairman of the Nationalist Party...
0:25:59 > 0:26:04That consistency was a huge beacon for people in Dublin
0:26:04 > 0:26:08who were floundering, who didn't know what way to go.
0:26:08 > 0:26:11I mean, were we going to go the arms route?
0:26:11 > 0:26:14Were we going to go the peaceful route?
0:26:14 > 0:26:16If we were going to go the peaceful route,
0:26:16 > 0:26:21what sort of peaceful vision were we aiming at?
0:26:21 > 0:26:24And Hume, in a sense,
0:26:24 > 0:26:30threw a life belt to southern politics as early as '69, '70.
0:26:33 > 0:26:39It was totally different from the politics we'd been used to in Northern Ireland.
0:26:39 > 0:26:42The new form of politics presented by John Hume
0:26:42 > 0:26:46was much more threatening to Unionism,
0:26:46 > 0:26:50because he was concentrating on issues of social justice
0:26:50 > 0:26:53and equality and so on.
0:26:53 > 0:26:58Of course, the Unionists were scared at different levels, at different times.
0:26:58 > 0:27:02They feared the strength of that relationship,
0:27:02 > 0:27:05the relationship between Dublin and John Hume.
0:27:05 > 0:27:08But they also feared, in my experience,
0:27:08 > 0:27:10they were very jealous of John Hume.
0:27:10 > 0:27:15I mean, his simple ability, for example, his ability to speak French,
0:27:15 > 0:27:20for some reason, that intimidated many Unionists.
0:27:20 > 0:27:24I mean, Unionists were hardly even reading the London Times
0:27:24 > 0:27:27to find out what was happening outside of Northern Ireland.
0:27:27 > 0:27:31So Hume was about ten years ahead, in my view,
0:27:31 > 0:27:35he was ten years ahead of Unionism in exposing
0:27:35 > 0:27:39the problem of Northern Ireland to a much wider audience.
0:27:39 > 0:27:45But in 1969, Hume's message of non-violent protest was already falling on deaf ears,
0:27:45 > 0:27:48especially in his home town.
0:27:49 > 0:27:53With this much hatred about, peace seems a forlorn hope.
0:27:53 > 0:27:58From the top of the flats, the Bogsiders had the clear advantage of height
0:27:58 > 0:28:01for their hail of rocks and petrol bombs.
0:28:01 > 0:28:06We are not doing this for publicity, we're doing it to defend this area against the police
0:28:06 > 0:28:09coming in and slaughtering the people that live in it.
0:28:09 > 0:28:13If the police walk in, we will just clobber every last one of them.
0:28:16 > 0:28:19The violence on his doorstep forced Hume
0:28:19 > 0:28:23and his colleagues to reassess their strategy.
0:28:23 > 0:28:30We realised very quickly that you can only march people up to the top of the hill and down again so often.
0:28:30 > 0:28:34So the civil rights marches became redundant.
0:28:34 > 0:28:37We realised if you were going to change things,
0:28:37 > 0:28:41which we had to do, then you have got to have the power to change them.
0:28:41 > 0:28:45And the only way you had power was through the ballot box.
0:28:47 > 0:28:50As the Unionist Prime Minister,
0:28:50 > 0:28:53Brian Faulkner, attempted to placate nationalists,
0:28:53 > 0:28:56Hume helped form a new political party, the SDLP.
0:28:58 > 0:29:04Most leadership contests or choices are compromises,
0:29:04 > 0:29:08and Gerry was leader. A very good politician.
0:29:08 > 0:29:12He hadn't the thought process that Hume had.
0:29:12 > 0:29:16He hadn't the strategic noose that John Hume had.
0:29:16 > 0:29:19He hadn't the cuteness of Hume.
0:29:21 > 0:29:24If one looks at it from a Nationalist perspective,
0:29:24 > 0:29:27they will have an equally dark view of Ian Paisley
0:29:27 > 0:29:31and his responsibility for causing the Troubles,
0:29:31 > 0:29:35but we would have regarded, in 1969, 1970,
0:29:35 > 0:29:39the leading members of the SDLP as carrying a heavier responsibility
0:29:39 > 0:29:41than Paisley for the onset of the Troubles.
0:29:41 > 0:29:44I'm not sure that I would hold that view now,
0:29:44 > 0:29:46but I'm telling you what I thought then.
0:29:55 > 0:29:59As the chaos on the streets of Derry and Belfast grew,
0:29:59 > 0:30:01the British government deployed troops
0:30:01 > 0:30:04in an attempt to quell the violence.
0:30:06 > 0:30:11Even though Dublin was Hume's main point of contact,
0:30:11 > 0:30:14he was already looking further afield for support,
0:30:14 > 0:30:19and in 1969, he made his first trip to America.
0:30:19 > 0:30:22There was no publicity in Boston for that visit,
0:30:22 > 0:30:25because John was not known.
0:30:25 > 0:30:30And if any lesson was learned from that -
0:30:30 > 0:30:34and I think John began to learn the lesson -
0:30:34 > 0:30:36the lesson was that the power that mattered
0:30:36 > 0:30:40was not the power of local Irish America,
0:30:40 > 0:30:43but the power of Washington,
0:30:43 > 0:30:46central, politically-based Irish America.
0:30:48 > 0:30:52And, as usual with John, I think he was a quick learner.
0:30:52 > 0:30:56In his subsequent trips to the states,
0:30:56 > 0:30:59the focus was almost entirely on Washington
0:30:59 > 0:31:03and what people at a federal level could do to assist.
0:31:05 > 0:31:09Hume was single-handedly internationalising the conflict.
0:31:09 > 0:31:13While Republicans would raise dollars in the bars of Boston and New York,
0:31:13 > 0:31:16Hume sought to build long-term relationships on Capitol Hill,
0:31:16 > 0:31:22forming a transatlantic partnership with one of America's most powerful senators.
0:31:22 > 0:31:27John charmed Senator Kennedy and also educated him.
0:31:27 > 0:31:30And he was not only impressed with his Irishness
0:31:30 > 0:31:33but with his knowledge and his political ability.
0:31:33 > 0:31:37I mean, I think he had a personal touch,
0:31:37 > 0:31:41in the political arena that Kennedy respected.
0:31:41 > 0:31:44I think he sort of saw that combination as something,
0:31:44 > 0:31:47that he tried to be in the United States Senate as well.
0:31:47 > 0:31:53John Hume was a pillar of enlightenment for us,
0:31:53 > 0:31:55about Northern Ireland,
0:31:55 > 0:31:58both in terms of the politics of it and in terms of the substance.
0:31:59 > 0:32:04He just admired John Hume for his wisdom and his vision.
0:32:04 > 0:32:07Ted Kennedy was really the best politician I've ever met.
0:32:07 > 0:32:09He saw things that others didn't
0:32:09 > 0:32:12and he was willing to really push for it.
0:32:12 > 0:32:18What Hume did here was develop an alternative to the IRA within the American electorate
0:32:18 > 0:32:22Having lost two brothers to assassins' bullets,
0:32:22 > 0:32:28Kennedy was very taken by the non-violent approach, felt it was the right way to go.
0:32:28 > 0:32:32John also, I think, very importantly
0:32:32 > 0:32:35represented an alternative
0:32:35 > 0:32:39to what was perceived to be
0:32:39 > 0:32:43an argument that only violence could attain Irish unity.
0:32:43 > 0:32:48And he was mindful of Parnell
0:32:48 > 0:32:51and he certainly was mindful of O'Connell,
0:32:51 > 0:32:56and he understood the role that violence had played in Irish history.
0:32:56 > 0:33:00But he was prepared to take that to a new level of discourse
0:33:00 > 0:33:07and to say, I represent the tradition of King and Gandhi,
0:33:07 > 0:33:11and we can achieve the same end...
0:33:13 > 0:33:14..absent violence.
0:33:17 > 0:33:22I'm very convinced that this was an absolutely profound change
0:33:22 > 0:33:26historically in the American dimension
0:33:26 > 0:33:31to the Anglo Irish and the Northern Ireland problems, for this reason:
0:33:31 > 0:33:36If you go back in the 19th century...
0:33:36 > 0:33:41Parnell, Davitt, and coming into the early 20th century,
0:33:41 > 0:33:45Pearse, De Valera, they all went to the US.
0:33:45 > 0:33:48They met Irish American members of congress.
0:33:48 > 0:33:53They addressed large gatherings of Irish Americans in New York and Boston.
0:33:53 > 0:33:56And of course it was useful that they did that,
0:33:56 > 0:33:59but it actually had no effect whatsoever
0:33:59 > 0:34:01on the organs of power in the US,
0:34:01 > 0:34:04which is to say the Executive, the State Department,
0:34:04 > 0:34:07the White House, they just ignored this completely.
0:34:09 > 0:34:12The difference that was made by Hume's strategy,
0:34:12 > 0:34:17and it's absolutely enormous and crucial,
0:34:17 > 0:34:22is that he used the power of very, very powerful Irish-American politicians
0:34:22 > 0:34:25directly on the White House.
0:34:33 > 0:34:35One week in 1972
0:34:35 > 0:34:40was to change the face of Northern Ireland at home and abroad.
0:34:44 > 0:34:47We had a civil rights march on Magilligan Strand
0:34:47 > 0:34:49because that was near the prison
0:34:49 > 0:34:52where people were interned, imprisoned without trial,
0:34:52 > 0:34:56a major attack on fundamental human rights and civil rights.
0:34:56 > 0:35:01And our march on that beach was attacked by the British Army with rubber bullets.
0:35:01 > 0:35:02GUNSHOTS
0:35:09 > 0:35:12Could you tell me on what authority you're holding us back?
0:35:12 > 0:35:14This is a prohibited area.
0:35:14 > 0:35:17- You're not allowed in a prohibited area.- Under what law?
0:35:17 > 0:35:21- Would you ask those men to stop firing rubber bullets, please? - They will not...
0:35:21 > 0:35:24'The very fact that they did that'
0:35:24 > 0:35:30on a beach where there couldn't possibly have been problems caused by marchers,
0:35:30 > 0:35:34I was worried what they would do in the streets of a city.
0:35:41 > 0:35:45Concerned, Hume made it clear he would not be attending the march
0:35:45 > 0:35:49planned for the following Sunday in Derry.
0:35:49 > 0:35:52He sat upstairs and he looked out the window
0:35:52 > 0:35:56and felt very, very lonely because it was a huge march
0:35:56 > 0:36:00and he said to himself, "I'm just finished politically".
0:36:00 > 0:36:02GUNSHOTS
0:36:02 > 0:36:06But Hume's fears were realised as the day would become known
0:36:06 > 0:36:08across the world as Bloody Sunday.
0:36:19 > 0:36:21People go marching peacefully
0:36:21 > 0:36:26and are shot while doing so.
0:36:26 > 0:36:32This means in effect that all channels of expression are cut off from them.
0:36:32 > 0:36:39As a politician, you think the hardening of opinion is going to be a lasting one?
0:36:39 > 0:36:41I wouldn't have any doubt about that.
0:36:59 > 0:37:03In the wake of Bloody Sunday, the Unionist Government limped on
0:37:03 > 0:37:06but soon collapsed, and within two years,
0:37:06 > 0:37:10Hume would get his first, and only, taste of government.
0:37:10 > 0:37:14The Sunningdale agreement was London's first attempt at power-sharing
0:37:14 > 0:37:17and Hume was installed as Minister of Commerce.
0:37:17 > 0:37:21But through the Ulster Workers' Council strike,
0:37:21 > 0:37:26Unionists brought down the agreement and the government.
0:37:26 > 0:37:28Even though Sunningdale collapsed,
0:37:28 > 0:37:31Hume's political rise continued
0:37:31 > 0:37:35and in 1979, he became leader of the SDLP,
0:37:35 > 0:37:39the same year he was elected to the European Parliament,
0:37:39 > 0:37:41taking his message to a new arena.
0:38:01 > 0:38:04When we remember that the peoples represented in this chamber,
0:38:04 > 0:38:08twice in this century alone, slaughtered one another
0:38:08 > 0:38:12by the million with a savagery that has been unparalleled
0:38:12 > 0:38:15in human history, and yet they had the vision and the strength
0:38:15 > 0:38:18to rise above it and create institutions
0:38:18 > 0:38:22that allow the peoples of Europe to grow together at their own speed.
0:38:22 > 0:38:26Is it too much to ask, Mr President, that we can do the same for Ireland,
0:38:26 > 0:38:30to create institutions which will allow the people of Ireland
0:38:30 > 0:38:33to grow together at their own speed?
0:38:33 > 0:38:38The whole ethos of that, the whole spirit of it,
0:38:38 > 0:38:40I think, intrigued him enormously
0:38:40 > 0:38:43and furnished him with, I think,
0:38:43 > 0:38:47the template that he used constantly
0:38:47 > 0:38:51as the template for the solution of the Northern Ireland problem.
0:38:51 > 0:38:55It is about people working together, spilling their sweat
0:38:55 > 0:38:58and not their blood, etc.
0:38:58 > 0:39:03You know, all of that, which became known to all of us as Humespeak,
0:39:03 > 0:39:06derived, if you like, from the experience
0:39:06 > 0:39:12of the European Union as a peace-making, peace-generating project.
0:39:14 > 0:39:19He was one of the most effective politicians in the European Parliament.
0:39:19 > 0:39:25HE SPEAKS FRENCH
0:39:25 > 0:39:29He was what I would call not a working politician
0:39:29 > 0:39:31on the floor of the house, or in committees,
0:39:31 > 0:39:35he was a social politician, mixing at night very often
0:39:35 > 0:39:38with leaders in European political life,
0:39:38 > 0:39:40including European commissioners.
0:39:40 > 0:39:43And very often successfully influencing them.
0:39:43 > 0:39:47And, in fairness, on occasions, in the interests...
0:39:47 > 0:39:50the best interests of the people of Northern Ireland.
0:39:50 > 0:39:51So he had tremendous influence.
0:40:00 > 0:40:04NEWSREADER: The ritual clanging rang through the streets of Belfast.
0:40:04 > 0:40:07Whistles and car horns were added to the clamour.
0:40:11 > 0:40:16NEWSREADER: The body of Raymond McCreesh was taken from hospital at eleven minutes past two,
0:40:16 > 0:40:1912 hours to the minute after his death in the Maze.
0:40:21 > 0:40:25The IRA hunger strike and the rise of Sinn Fein in the early Eighties
0:40:25 > 0:40:28would cause the two governments to try to find another way
0:40:28 > 0:40:31through the seemingly intractable violence.
0:40:34 > 0:40:38The Anglo-Irish Agreement gave the Irish Government a say
0:40:38 > 0:40:43in the affairs of Northern Ireland for the first time in over 60 years.
0:40:43 > 0:40:47Hume's influence was beginning to bear fruit.
0:40:47 > 0:40:50We're not under any illusions that today's agreement will produce
0:40:50 > 0:40:55instant peace and stability or indeed can be regarded
0:40:55 > 0:40:56as a final settlement.
0:40:56 > 0:40:58What it does do, in my view,
0:40:58 > 0:41:02particularly the creation of a new inter-governmental institution,
0:41:02 > 0:41:06is give an opportunity for making progress
0:41:06 > 0:41:08towards peace and reconciliation.
0:41:10 > 0:41:13I'm sure he wasn't asked about every single phrase
0:41:13 > 0:41:16but I think one could be very certain that, first of all,
0:41:16 > 0:41:20the agreement reflected a kind of a technical outworking
0:41:20 > 0:41:24of the kind of compromises that Hume had sketched out, really,
0:41:24 > 0:41:26a decade or more earlier.
0:41:27 > 0:41:31Regaining support from the minority which had been drifting
0:41:31 > 0:41:33towards the IRA and Sinn Fein,
0:41:33 > 0:41:35which, in fact, was fundamental,
0:41:35 > 0:41:38because my calculation had been...
0:41:38 > 0:41:39our view was that,
0:41:39 > 0:41:46if we could do this successfully, then the IRA would have to
0:41:46 > 0:41:48reconsider their position
0:41:48 > 0:41:53and realise that the stalemate between them and the British Army,
0:41:53 > 0:41:57that they would need to consider whether violence
0:41:57 > 0:41:59was getting them anywhere
0:41:59 > 0:42:02and consider moving in a democratic direction.
0:42:05 > 0:42:09But the Anglo-Irish Agreement was also, in large part,
0:42:09 > 0:42:12due to the relationships Hume had built in Washington.
0:42:14 > 0:42:18'The four leading Irish-American politicians who have concerned themselves
0:42:18 > 0:42:22'with Northern Ireland have become known as the Four Horsemen.
0:42:22 > 0:42:25'The best known in Britain is Senator Teddy Kennedy,
0:42:25 > 0:42:27'perhaps the president-to-be.
0:42:27 > 0:42:29'Then there's Daniel Patrick Moynihan,
0:42:29 > 0:42:32'Senator for New York and ex-ambassador to the UN.
0:42:32 > 0:42:37'Hugh Carey is Governor of the State of New York.
0:42:37 > 0:42:38'And Tip O'Neill of Boston
0:42:38 > 0:42:41'is Speaker of the House of Representatives,
0:42:41 > 0:42:43'one of the most powerful men in America.'
0:42:49 > 0:42:51That is when the Four Horsemen and my father's role
0:42:51 > 0:42:53as Speaker with Ronald Reagan
0:42:53 > 0:42:55came to a point.
0:42:55 > 0:42:57They wanted any number of things.
0:42:57 > 0:43:00They wanted to give my dad what he wanted in Northern Ireland
0:43:00 > 0:43:05because they needed other things with actions going on
0:43:05 > 0:43:06in central America.
0:43:06 > 0:43:08And they wanted a trade-off.
0:43:08 > 0:43:10My father was not prepared to give them one
0:43:10 > 0:43:14but he held Ronald Reagan's hand and asked that,
0:43:14 > 0:43:18in a meeting that Reagan was going to have with Margaret Thatcher
0:43:18 > 0:43:21coming to the United States and speaking before Congress,
0:43:21 > 0:43:23that if he allowed her to speak before Congress
0:43:23 > 0:43:26he wanted Ronald Reagan and the administration
0:43:26 > 0:43:30to let Thatcher know that they wanted peace in Northern Ireland.
0:43:32 > 0:43:37So I would appeal to the British Government to re-examine seriously
0:43:37 > 0:43:38its own role in Northern Ireland.
0:43:38 > 0:43:41The problem of Northern Ireland...
0:43:41 > 0:43:43APPLAUSE
0:43:43 > 0:43:45..will not be solved if it is permitted
0:43:45 > 0:43:49to become a political football in British politics.
0:43:50 > 0:43:56When Mrs Thatcher came to Washington in early 1984,
0:43:56 > 0:43:59the Anglo-Irish negotiations had virtually broken down.
0:43:59 > 0:44:03This was after the famous "Out, out, out" speech.
0:44:05 > 0:44:07O'Neill took her into his office
0:44:07 > 0:44:12and showed her the photographs of his family ancestral place.
0:44:12 > 0:44:17I mean, there was hardly any building there, in Inishowen,
0:44:17 > 0:44:20which John had taken him to,
0:44:20 > 0:44:24and it became a huge emotional issue for O'Neill.
0:44:24 > 0:44:28And he pointed out to Mrs Thatcher, you know,
0:44:28 > 0:44:30that this was a huge part of his inheritance
0:44:30 > 0:44:34and of Irish-Americans' inheritance and it was essential
0:44:34 > 0:44:38that peace should be achieved, etc.
0:44:38 > 0:44:40But Reagan actually gave it to her straight,
0:44:40 > 0:44:42because O'Neill told him to.
0:44:42 > 0:44:48And O'Neill told him to because John Hume told O'Neill to do that.
0:44:48 > 0:44:53And this is something that nobody could match around the world.
0:44:53 > 0:44:57I mean, even the Israelis would have a hard time getting that stuff,
0:44:57 > 0:44:58or the British.
0:45:01 > 0:45:05And in this case, it meant Mrs Thatcher enduring the discomfort
0:45:05 > 0:45:07of being told by Ronald Reagan
0:45:07 > 0:45:11what to do about a part of her jurisdiction.
0:45:12 > 0:45:14And she went ahead and did it.
0:45:22 > 0:45:26'Democracy was done to death in Downing Street
0:45:26 > 0:45:29'by Margaret Thatcher.'
0:45:29 > 0:45:35Yes, democracy was murdered in London.
0:45:37 > 0:45:39Despite Unionist anger,
0:45:39 > 0:45:43the Anglo-Irish Agreement had little impact.
0:45:43 > 0:45:47The IRA continued with its ruthless campaign.
0:45:49 > 0:45:53Yet, within just a couple of years, John Hume would be meeting
0:45:53 > 0:45:57the Republican leadership in a West Belfast monastery.
0:45:57 > 0:46:01His argument was he would speak to anybody
0:46:01 > 0:46:04who could save a life,
0:46:04 > 0:46:10and his argument was there are 20,000 soldiers on the streets,
0:46:10 > 0:46:13they haven't done anything to further the situation.
0:46:13 > 0:46:17If I can save one life by talking to somebody, I certainly will do it.
0:46:18 > 0:46:20A man called PJ McGrory,
0:46:20 > 0:46:24a friend of mine and my solicitor for a very, very long time,
0:46:24 > 0:46:28had said to him, "Watch what's happening within Sinn Fein".
0:46:28 > 0:46:32We get to the point where Father Alex eventually
0:46:32 > 0:46:34writes to John Hume.
0:46:34 > 0:46:38To his astonishment and great pleasure,
0:46:38 > 0:46:41John was in touch with him within a day of receiving the letter.
0:46:41 > 0:46:45He was on the phone to him and was in Clonard Monastery the next day,
0:46:45 > 0:46:49and met me within... as quickly as we could put the meeting together.
0:46:49 > 0:46:52It was a very, very short period.
0:46:56 > 0:47:03He responded, notwithstanding the sort of rivalries,
0:47:03 > 0:47:06different analysis, different upsets
0:47:06 > 0:47:089between all of the players,
0:47:08 > 0:47:12he came immediately to this, and in my view,
0:47:12 > 0:47:14he came with a good heart to it.
0:47:16 > 0:47:19I don't give two balls of roasted snow, Jim,
0:47:19 > 0:47:23what advice anybody gives me about those talks because I will continue
0:47:23 > 0:47:28with them until they reach what I hope will be a positive conclusion.
0:47:28 > 0:47:31I was all in favour of discussion.
0:47:32 > 0:47:35I was all in favour of bringing them in.
0:47:35 > 0:47:39I was all in favour of using everything I could
0:47:39 > 0:47:43to end the awful violence that I had seen at first hand.
0:47:43 > 0:47:46But I was also in favour of getting a price.
0:47:46 > 0:47:49Only two things can happen as a result of our dialogue, as I keep repeating.
0:47:49 > 0:47:54Either we fail or we succeed. If we fail, nothing's changed. If we succeed, everything's changed.
0:47:54 > 0:47:57In my view, the mistake was made
0:47:59 > 0:48:02in that the price was not laid down from the word go.
0:48:04 > 0:48:08If you want into the democratic process, grand, you're welcome.
0:48:08 > 0:48:10But you can't be in the democratic process
0:48:10 > 0:48:13at the same time as you carry out acts of violence.
0:48:29 > 0:48:35Adams' initial price was a visa to visit America,
0:48:35 > 0:48:40and the White House and Capitol Hill looked to Hume for guidance.
0:48:40 > 0:48:45Senator Kennedy began making phone calls to President Clinton,
0:48:45 > 0:48:47explaining what he had heard.
0:48:47 > 0:48:49And President Clinton's
0:48:49 > 0:48:50initial reaction,
0:48:50 > 0:48:52like almost everyone else's was,
0:48:52 > 0:48:57"We can't do that? What's Hume saying? Adams is a terrorist".
0:48:57 > 0:49:01And Kennedy said, "No, you've got to understand what's going on".
0:49:01 > 0:49:06"Hume is convinced that Adams is ready to make this huge decision
0:49:06 > 0:49:08"to move towards peace and reconciliation
0:49:08 > 0:49:10"and end the violence".
0:49:16 > 0:49:20By backing a visa for Adams while the violence continued,
0:49:20 > 0:49:24Hume knew he was going against the advice of many in his party.
0:49:24 > 0:49:28The stress was beginning to take its toll.
0:49:28 > 0:49:33I think that the IRA treated him like dirt for a period of time.
0:49:33 > 0:49:39I actually was in a position to see him suffer politically.
0:49:39 > 0:49:42And he used to visit me quite often in those days,
0:49:42 > 0:49:46he visited a whole lot of people, but he came to my house,
0:49:46 > 0:49:50and, I mean, the tension was unbearable.
0:49:50 > 0:49:54It is the best opportunity in 20 years that I have seen.
0:49:54 > 0:49:57And the Prime Minister describes me in that statement
0:49:57 > 0:50:00as courageous and imaginative -
0:50:00 > 0:50:04why has he rejected my proposals before he's talked to me about them?
0:50:06 > 0:50:10He must have been smoking 60 cigarettes a day in those days,
0:50:10 > 0:50:12and it was unbearable.
0:50:14 > 0:50:16Some days I used to say to him,
0:50:16 > 0:50:19"Don't take it, John. Just go out and slap them back".
0:50:22 > 0:50:26Hume persevered and eventually, in 1997,
0:50:26 > 0:50:30he was back to where he'd started 25 years before...
0:50:30 > 0:50:33in negotiations based on the same principles of power-sharing
0:50:33 > 0:50:37and all-Ireland bodies that had led to the Sunningdale Agreement.
0:50:37 > 0:50:41At the core of Hume's belief was the need to resolve
0:50:41 > 0:50:44three sets of relations - between Ireland and Britain,
0:50:44 > 0:50:48north and south, and those within Northern Ireland.
0:50:50 > 0:50:52Now amid talks about talks
0:50:52 > 0:50:55and negotiations based on those principles,
0:50:55 > 0:50:58Hume's vision was becoming a reality.
0:50:59 > 0:51:03In addition to being an architect,
0:51:03 > 0:51:06really THE architect of the process,
0:51:06 > 0:51:11John was an indispensable force
0:51:11 > 0:51:15to keep going. That is, no matter what the problems,
0:51:15 > 0:51:18no matter how difficult or hopeless it seems,
0:51:18 > 0:51:20we've got to keep this going.
0:51:20 > 0:51:23And he reminded me personally often,
0:51:23 > 0:51:26and he reminded the other Northern Ireland participants often,
0:51:26 > 0:51:29of what was at stake.
0:51:31 > 0:51:35John likes to know the principles and what the bottom line was.
0:51:35 > 0:51:38I mean, John would never be on the drafting committee
0:51:38 > 0:51:40and standing orders would bore him anyway.
0:51:40 > 0:51:43But he kept...
0:51:43 > 0:51:48His unique piece is being able to filter in and out to everybody.
0:51:48 > 0:51:52And as I recall that week, in the final negotiation week,
0:51:52 > 0:51:56John was about all of the time.
0:51:56 > 0:52:00When you were standing, often for what seemed interminable amounts of time in corridors,
0:52:00 > 0:52:03and waiting for the next meeting,
0:52:03 > 0:52:07John would kind of sidle up to you and say...
0:52:07 > 0:52:10Draw you aside a little bit and say, "You know, I think if you look
0:52:10 > 0:52:14"at this or you look at that, you might find a way through this".
0:52:14 > 0:52:19And that was his... He was eternally sort of prompting
0:52:19 > 0:52:23and pushing and prodding the thing forward.
0:52:23 > 0:52:27And did it almost like a kind of independent adviser.
0:52:27 > 0:52:30I mean, you know, he wasn't... I mean he was obviously
0:52:30 > 0:52:34very conscious of the Nationalist position, don't misunderstand me,
0:52:34 > 0:52:39but I never regarded John as of a particular party in that sense.
0:52:39 > 0:52:45I mean, he was kind of aside from it all, maybe even above it.
0:52:52 > 0:52:58I now declare this plenary session adjourned sine die.
0:52:58 > 0:52:59APPLAUSE
0:52:59 > 0:53:04'The whole world is watching what's happening here today on this very historic day,'
0:53:04 > 0:53:07locally, nationally and internationally
0:53:07 > 0:53:11and that strongly I think strengthens the whole mood among our people
0:53:11 > 0:53:16which is very powerful in all sections of our people
0:53:16 > 0:53:19for agreement and for peace and stability.
0:53:19 > 0:53:22CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
0:53:26 > 0:53:29And for a moment, Hume became a pop star.
0:53:32 > 0:53:35CHEERING
0:53:35 > 0:53:40'It's a very big thing in my and my family's life
0:53:40 > 0:53:44'and our band's life that we were invited'
0:53:44 > 0:53:49to be a small part of what was
0:53:49 > 0:53:53a tectonic shift in Irish politics.
0:54:05 > 0:54:07APPLAUSE
0:54:07 > 0:54:10The Nobel Peace Prize followed for John Hume and David Trimble,
0:54:10 > 0:54:14the leaders of the moderate parties that guaranteed the peace,
0:54:14 > 0:54:17but were eaten up in the process by the extremes.
0:54:25 > 0:54:30'Getting agreement in Northern Ireland was central to resolving the problem,'
0:54:30 > 0:54:32because as I have always said,
0:54:32 > 0:54:35it was the people of Ireland who were divided, not the territory.
0:54:35 > 0:54:40And when people are divided, the only way that a problem can be resolved is not by violence,
0:54:40 > 0:54:43which will only deepen the division, but by agreement.
0:54:46 > 0:54:49You can see the house where I live up there.
0:54:49 > 0:54:52The black and white tops.
0:54:55 > 0:54:59In 2004, Hume stepped back from frontline politics.
0:54:59 > 0:55:02Although struggling with the effects of ill-health,
0:55:02 > 0:55:06he remains a very public figure around his beloved home town.
0:55:07 > 0:55:12Ten years ago, John was in Austria for a peace conference
0:55:12 > 0:55:15and he became very ill
0:55:15 > 0:55:21and this resulted in three major abdominal operations
0:55:21 > 0:55:25and a period in intensive care with a ventilator.
0:55:25 > 0:55:29I think at that stage he suffered some brain damage
0:55:29 > 0:55:35so he has quite severe memory problems.
0:55:38 > 0:55:41These weren't manifested too quickly,
0:55:41 > 0:55:44but increasingly, since he retired,
0:55:44 > 0:55:47his memory difficulties have increased.
0:55:48 > 0:55:51There's a party from Canada who's walking the walls, John.
0:55:51 > 0:55:53- Well, welcome to Derry. ALL:- Thank you!
0:55:53 > 0:55:56Whereabouts in Canada do you come from?
0:55:56 > 0:55:58Montreal, and Ottawa.
0:55:58 > 0:56:00In Ottawa? So you used to speak French then?
0:56:00 > 0:56:02- I do.- We still do!
0:56:02 > 0:56:03- Vous parlez francais toujours?- Oui.
0:56:03 > 0:56:06- Bienvenu a Derry.- Merci.
0:56:06 > 0:56:10'He keeps himself very busy. He is quite independent.'
0:56:10 > 0:56:14He goes to his Derry City matches.
0:56:14 > 0:56:17He goes to the local every evening.
0:56:17 > 0:56:19He, um...
0:56:21 > 0:56:24He stays very much involved in events in the town
0:56:24 > 0:56:27and does a bit of walking
0:56:27 > 0:56:33so... so hopefully that will continue.
0:56:33 > 0:56:35Goodbye!
0:56:35 > 0:56:39'I used to reflect about how it took so long to get to where we now are.'
0:56:39 > 0:56:43'And one of the reasons is that there wasn't somebody prepared'
0:56:43 > 0:56:47to break the cycle, and John Hume did that.
0:56:47 > 0:56:48The three together.
0:56:48 > 0:56:50CAMERAS CLICK
0:56:52 > 0:56:54APPLAUSE
0:56:54 > 0:57:00'I have no doubt that he will be seen as the catalyst for the entire peace process'
0:57:00 > 0:57:02and the visionary who saw it before anyone else did.
0:57:02 > 0:57:05He's the one who went to Adams and said, "Hey, look, let's talk".
0:57:05 > 0:57:08He built the support in the United States.
0:57:08 > 0:57:11He got Ted Kennedy and the others involved.
0:57:11 > 0:57:15And he got Bill Clinton to engage and see the possibilities.
0:57:15 > 0:57:20I think that's how he'll be seen. It would not have happened without John Hume.
0:57:20 > 0:57:25He's seen as a man who cares about the human person,
0:57:25 > 0:57:29and the dignity of the human person and that's what he champions.
0:57:29 > 0:57:35He champions a world in which that dignity is honoured and vindicated.
0:57:35 > 0:57:39Would you ask those men there to stop firing rubber bullets at the women, please?
0:57:39 > 0:57:45The Sunningdale Agreement, the Anglo-Irish Agreement of 1985,
0:57:45 > 0:57:50the Good Friday Agreement and everything that has flown from that.
0:57:50 > 0:57:53The fundamental policies set out by Hume
0:57:53 > 0:57:58were the policies in those successive agreements.
0:57:58 > 0:58:01And that's why I say, without any hesitation,
0:58:01 > 0:58:04that the leadership of Irish Nationalism
0:58:04 > 0:58:07moved from Dublin to John Hume for 30 years.
0:58:29 > 0:58:32Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:58:32 > 0:58:35E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk