biography
pronunciation:
[hyoom]
| sex:
| male
|
| lived:
| (1937– )
|
| biography:
| Northern Ireland politician, born in Londonderry, Co Londonderry, NW Northern Ireland, UK. He studied at the National University of Ireland, and was a founder member of the Credit Union Party, which was a forerunner to the Social Democratic Labour Party (SDLP). He sat in the Northern Ireland parliament (1969–72) and the Northern Ireland Assembly (1972–3), and became widely respected as a moderate, non-violent member of the Catholic community. He became SDLP leader in 1979, and in the same year was elected to the European Parliament. He has represented Foyle in the House of Commons since 1983. In 1993 he and Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams began a series of discussions, the Hume–Adams peace initiative, intended to bring about an end to violence in Northern Ireland. This helped create the climate for John Major and Albert Reynolds' Downing Street Declaration (1993), setting out general principles for peace talks in Northern Ireland. He shared the 1998 Nobel Peace Prize with David Trimble for his efforts to find a peaceful solution to the conflict, and in the same year was elected to the newly formed Northern Ireland Assembly. He stepped down as leader of the SDLP in 2001. |
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