Simon Coveney recalls meeting John Hume in Brussels and speaks of enduring relevance of his hero’s ‘respect for difference’ message

Mr. Coveney told an audience in Dublin this week how he was ‘walking to a meeting across Brussels on a summer evening, along one of the many narrow streets between the Grand Place and the European Parliament’ when he spotted the former SDLP leader who had only recently retired from politics having served as MEP between 1979 and 2004.

"I saw a face I recognised walking quite frantically towards me. His face anxious and furrowed, glasses loose at the end of his nose, sweat dripping from his forehead; jacket in hand, tie loosened, his shirt wet through to the skin.

"It was John Hume, I couldn’t believe it, a hero of mine, one of the reasons I committed to entering politics in the first instance, and a key reason I entered European politics,” said the former Fine Gael Deputy Leader as he delivered the 4th John Hume 'European Spirit of Peace’ Lecture at the Institute of International and European Affairs (IIEA).

Mr. Coveney related that the late Mr. Hume was lost and that he had offered to guide him to his destination.

"What started that evening as an unexpected encounter, with a then vulnerable John Hume, developed into a conversation that hasn’t left me.

"He told me that human beings need one another, particularly when we are weak or lost. He told me about his belief in the European Union, and why he was in Brussels that day.

“He told me that story that I’d heard him recount on media, but it somehow sounded more powerful in person, of arriving in Strasbourg for the first time in 1979, walking across the bridge from Strasbourg in France to Kehl in Germany, casting his mind back to what it must have been like 30 years earlier, at the end of the Second World War.

“It had been the worst half century in the history of mankind, 50 million people had killed each other. But 30 years later, a bridge had been built, a new union created at the heart of a new Europe to guarantee peace and an absence of war.

“It was like he wanted to impart wisdom to a stranger he’d just met. I’m told by those close to him that he did that a lot, but on that day I felt special,” said Mr. Coveney.

The former Tánaiste spoke of Mr. Hume’s key principles of respect for difference; the need to build institutions that respect difference, like the EU; and commitment to a healing process that involves working together for common interests.

In a wide-ranging speech addressing many of the challenges facing Ireland, the European Union and the international community he spoke of how Mr. Hume’s principle of ‘respect for difference’ was being breached in many contexts.

"We must ‘respect difference’, but also insist on accountability and the protections of international law, even if it means uncomfortable truths.

“Today history is repeating itself, hundreds of thousands dead in nearly three years of war in Ukraine. One aggressor, trying to force its will on another country fighting for it’s very survival.

Taoiseach Simon Harris in Derry: Full speech from John Hume and Thomas P. O’Neill Chair Lecture 2024

“In the Middle East a war that started with a savage terrorist attack, has become an indelible stain on the international community’s ability to protect civilians from a brutal war in Gaza and Lebanon.

“In Syria too, conflict is escalating again, with outside influence funding and arming warring parties in the North West. The civil war in Sudan continues to kill tens of thousands, again supported and funded by outside interests, and is largely ignored by international power brokers,” said the erstwhile Minister for Foreign Affairs.

The Cork-native spoke particularly about the ongoing slaughter in Gaza which he described as a ‘war on children’.

“The human cost of these conflicts is shocking.

“Take this fact into your minds-eye: the most frequent age of people killed in the war in Gaza is below 9 years of age. I’m sure it was never the intention, but this has been a war on children.

“On average, almost 50 children every single day for the last year, have been killed. This is what human beings are capable of when conflict goes unchallenged, when ‘difference is not respected’, when ‘international institutions don’t work’ and when there is ‘no common purpose’,” he said.

Mr. Coveney further claimed that there was a danger that difference will be weaponized rather than respected in the years to come.

“I fear we will see a more polarised, transactional, divided geopolitical landscape in the months and years to come. Ireland will be pressurised to make choices linked to other countries agendas.

Brilliant pictures of Hume visiting Derry's 'New Bridge' 40 years ago this month

“We need to make our own choices, on the basis of a foreign policy that has served us well, committed to the EU and UN, consistent with international law, signed conventions and international court rulings.

“In other words we must push against the forces of populism, corrosive nationalism, promises of quick fixes based on emotion and fear – the kind of politics that embeds and weaponizes difference, making conflict inevitable,” he said.

In this context Ireland needed to be guided by the message of John Hume.

“For a globalised connected Island like Ireland we need to protect what we’ve built, but also be agile and willing to adapt to new realities.

“Let’s not forget what’s served us well: EU membership, a deep commitment to multilateralism, a willingness to call out breaches of international law and an insistence on accountability without double standards, and a constant focus on dialog, compromise and peace building.

“It's time to remind ourselves of the values, humility and politics of John Hume,” he concluded.

Derry’s Prince of Peace John Hume added to Oxford Dictionary of National Biography