Mr John Hume yesterday received an honorary degree from Queen's University Belfast. Delivering a citation for the SDLP leader, Prof Paul Bew said: "John Hume has been at the centre of political life here since the onset of the Troubles. He has dominated the epoch in a way that no other politician, British or Irish, nationalist or unionist, has.
"I can think of no finer tribute to him than to say that he has set the agenda for a new Ireland in the late 20th century in the way that Parnell set it in the late 19th century."