John Hume - A True Hero

My thoughts went straight back to my childhood and sitting in the back of my uncle, John Tierney’s car, as John Hume travelled the streets of Derry encouraging people out to vote for the SDLP over a loudspeaker.

“This is John Hume asking for your support, come out in strength and vote the SDLP. Stand shoulder to shoulder with the SDLP and vote John Hume,” would ring round the city and people answered his call in their thousands.

John had the support of the people he worked tirelessly to help but for him the one person who always had his back was his beloved wife Pat.

Pat not only supported John in his work, she was fully engaged in it with him.

The young boy in the back of that speaker car never dared to imagine that he would be Mayor of Derry and Strabane and have the huge privilege to open a book of condolence for John Hume.

I have looked up to and admired John Hume since I was a young boy. My Father and I would sit up at night to watch him on TV debates. I sat there in awe as Hume’s so called single transferable speech was the voice of sanity in those debates, rising above bitterness, narrowness and old battles that provided no hope for young people like me.

Due to the close friendship and working relationship with my own uncle John, I had the privilege of being in John Hume’s company many times.

John was a political giant who sacrificed so much of his life for peace. Those sacrifices mean that we have the privilege to live in a better City and Country than the one he grew up in. That was no small task and we are all the better for the life he led.

John always believed that all politics is local and while he promoted a new and agreed Ireland for everyone, that vision started with wanting a better Derry.

We must all now work to build that Derry and Ireland that John dreamed of.

A Derry where difference is accepted and diversity is respected.

A Derry where we all pull in the one direction for a common goal.

A Derry where our young people can grow up in peace and learn about all the different traditions on these islands.

A Derry where we spill our sweat, not our blood.

There is no doubt that we enjoy a peace in Derry and Ireland today due to the hard work of people like John Hume but the legacy he has left means there is more work to do.

That journey involves building a new Ireland that we can all be proud to call home. In pursuing that work, it is right that we recognise the sacrifices that age of politicians had to make for our benefit.

John wasn’t the only person that had to make huge sacrifices for our peace. The entire Hume family made huge sacrifices too. So, as we acknowledge the contribution John made it is also appropriate that this city also acknowledges and thanks Pat, Thérèse, Áine, Aidan, John and Mo for the huge sacrifices they made. They sacrificed family time, they sacrificed precious time with their husband and father. They shared such an amazing man with us all.

Tributes have come from around the world - from Presidents and Prime Ministers past and present. He has been widely described as our Martin Luther King.

While that is a huge honour for anyone, for me John Hume was not our Martin Luther King, he was our John Hume.

Our country will forever be a better place because of John Hume.

A True Hero.

My Hero.