David Trimble, Northern Ireland’s first minister from 1998 to 2002 and leader of the Ulster Unionist party from 1995 to 2005, has died aged 77. In 1998, Ruth Dudley Edwards wrote about the Unionist leader from a Catholic’s perspective.
On a wall in David Trimble’s Westminster office is a cartoon of a bunker, complete with tin-hatted soldiers poking their rifles over the sandbags.
I was dealing with someone with an intellectual life outside academia and politics
‘Ulster,’ says the caption. ‘Probably the best lager in the world.’ I laughed when I saw it, and Mr Trimble grinned and gestured to a 1929 election poster behind his desk, featuring Lord Craigavon glowering over the legend, ‘Ulster. What we have we hold.’ That’s here in case people think I’ve gone soft.’
An ability to laugh at himself and his predicaments is one of Mr Trimble’s endearing characteristics. Having been one of the most vilified politicians in the British Isles, he needs it.
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