“Perseverance”: that’s the lesson the Irish Government will take from the legacy of the late John Hume for the present moment of tensions with the British government over the Northern Ireland Protocol and stalled politics in the North.
“One of the great traits of Hume was the unrelenting perseverance,” Taoiseach Micheál Martin told The Irish Times, after he unveiled a statue of the Derryman in the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France.
“There’s a lesson in that, so that we don’t lose the head here, and that we just keep persevering with the UK government in terms of enabling them to do the right thing, put it that way.”
A European Union flag covered the bust until the moment it was removed to applause by Mr Martin and the president of the European Parliament Roberta Metsola, revealing an imposing bronze bust of the Nobel Prize winner made by sculptor Elizabeth O’Kane.
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In a speech, Ms Metsola described Hume as a “a great man for European democracy” and said it was “fitting” for the statue to stand in an institution where he had served as a parliamentarian for 25 years, working to build international engagement with the peace process in Northern Ireland while drawing inspiration from a city that symbolises the post-war reconciliation between Germany and France.
Fabienne Keller, a French MEP who knew Hume when she was mayor of Strasbourg, praised the location of the bust overlooking the Rhine river, where she said Hume used to walk.
“He was a friend of mine, and he would talk so nicely about Strasbourg as an inspiration when he was negotiating for the peace in Ireland,” she told The Irish Times. “He would tell me that when he was desperate he would walk along the Rhine and ask himself how Germans and French, who killed each other during three wars with millions of dead in the second World War, could finally find a way to develop friendship and peace together.”
His son John Hume Jr said he felt “emotional” and described the bust as “a huge honour”.
“The European Parliament meant a huge amount to dad,” he told The Irish Times. “The symbolism of this place – it’s a living, working example of how consensus politics works.”
In his speech the Taoiseach recalled Hume’s description of the EU as “the best example in the history of the world of conflict resolution”, and said it was impossible to ignore the “terrible reality that a brutal war has returned to the continent of Europe” in Ukraine.
“The people of Ukraine are bravely defending their country and our shared values against the onslaught of the Russian army, directed by a man who is opposed to everything we hold dear – democracy, freedom, the rule of law. Those values, our values, John’s values must prevail,” he told the gathered crowd.
Hume’s legacy has taken on a deep symbolism in the EU, sharpened by the fact that Northern Ireland lost its representation in the parliament due to Brexit the same year of his death in 2020.
With the powersharing institutions currently suspended, and tensions continuing over the British government’s plans to take unilateral action on the protocol, Mr Martin urged parties to the Good Friday Agreement to uphold a deal that Hume was instrumental in achieving.
“The people mandated powersharing,” he said. “North and South and east-west political institutions, principles of partnership, mutual respect, and parity of esteem, and the overarching goal of striving in every practical way for reconciliation. All parties to the agreement need to live up to these principles and objectives today.”
