John Hume Quotes (52 Quotes)


    She has made an enormous contribution toward bringing about peace on our streets.

    The violence had broken out in both sides, but our philosophy as a party was very, very clear.

    The only thing I shall talk about is my sporting achievements at school. My primary sporting achievement at school was that I dodged games for two complete years and was well through the third year before they discovered that I had completely avoided all games.

    The real duty now, if we want to have a totally peaceful and stable country, is for all true democrats to implement the will of the people.

    The civil rights movement in the United States was about the same thing, about equality of treatment for all sections of the people, and that is precisely what our movement was about.


    The basic policy of the British Government was that since the majority of people in Northern Ireland wished to remain in the United Kingdom, that was that. We asked what would happen if the majority wanted something else, if the majority wanted to see Irish unity.

    In working class districts, you had several families living together in the one house, and it was very difficult to get a house, because the politicians who controlled housing were doing so in a very discriminatory fashion.

    firmly based on our party's fundamental values.

    It is necessary as far as we are concerned that this matter is resolved as soon as possible,

    Before the arrival of the Credit Union, people who were from the poor background or a working class background couldn't borrow from banks.

    This is about principled compromise, not compromised principles.

    Well, Bangor was a town in the north area of Northern Ireland which has not, in fact, been directly affected by the troubles to any great extent.

    I never thought in terms of being a leader. I thought very simply in terms of helping people.

    My father was a civil servant, fairly sort of middle ranking, low to middle ranking. He worked almost entirely in what was then called Administrative Labour, dealing with employment and unemployment issues.

    Like everybody at that age, I read an awful lot of pulp fiction. But at the same time, I also read quite a bit of history and read that as much for pleasure as part of a curriculum.

    They divided the city into three electoral wards, and in one ward there was 70 percent of the people, the Catholic population, and they elected eight representatives to the city council.

    I think that's not a question that one can answer accurately. I read a whole range of books, quite a lot of history at the time, and still do read a lot. I read very widely.

    My father was unemployed and I was the eldest of seven children. We were very poor. And when you ask how did we support ourselves, the only funding that we had was unemployment payments.

    Having grown up as I grew up, I felt that anything I could do to help people I should do it, putting into practice normal attitudes to life.

    In my opinion, what changed the situation eventually - and, of course, it took a lot of time to change it, things like that don't change in a week or a fortnight - was the new educational system.

    Subsequently, I might point to one or two volumes that were quite interesting, but at the same time, you can put too much emphasis on this.

    I stood for election, and in that election, I sought a mandate to found a new political party based on social democratic philosophy.

    When the break between himself and ourselves took place it came to our surprise and we regretted that very much. He was the first MP from Northern Ireland to be even allowed to raise the Northern Ireland problem in the House of Commons.

    have the success of the entire peace process in their sights.

    Looking back on that, it was quite an accomplishment. You had some of the best teams in the state in the CKC.

    It took immense effort by two governments, the U.S. president, all the political parties on this island and the massive support of the people of Ireland to achieve this prize, ... I ask (the IRA) to demonstrate for all to see their patriotism and the desire to move the situation forward by ... beginning voluntarily the process of decommissioning.

    In recent years I have had serious health problems, and it is now necessary for me to cut down on my workload.

    Total ghettoization, because they were in charge of public housing, the local council, and they deliberately located people in a ghetto situation in order to ensure that they maintained control.

    There were two mentalities, and both mentalities had to change. There was what I called the Afrikaner mind set of the Unionist politicians, which was holding all power in their own hands, and discriminating, and their objective was to protect their identity.

    He knows details about the machine ... this is model X and why. That shows a really involved collector.

    I believe we now have a great opportunity to transform our society and harness the massive international goodwill that is out there towards us and to translate it into real benefits for all our people.

    It's all really a matter of distrust, which is very natural given what this community has been through over many years.

    I grew up in Derry, of course, and it was - Derry was the worst example of Northern Ireland's discrimination.

    Every child growing up will look to their parents, my mother and my father. My grandmother lived with us. I picked up quite a bit of family lore and history from her, which was interesting.

    I see this award as a very powerful endorsement of the peace process ... because it underlines massive international goodwill towards it.

    This isn't just an award to David Trimble and myself. It's an award to all the people of Northern Ireland and to all the parties that have participated in the peace process and to both governments.

    I went to the local schools, the local state primary school, and then to the local grammar school. A secondary school, which technically was an independent school, it was not part of the state educational system.


    These are the influences that everybody has. Some individuals might stand out because of one thing or another, but whether one's perception as a child of what was important or not is accurate, I don't know.

    That's the strategy that myself and my party have pursued and are pursuing.

    We did not seek ideological confrontation.

    When people are divided, the only solution is agreement.

    If the word 'No' was removed from the English language, Ian Paisley would be speechless.

    The agreement opens a new future for all in Ireland, ... It is now up to political leaders on all sides to move decisively to fulfill the mandate of the people.

    Given that he (Major) has told me in writing that those who were killed on Bloody Sunday should be regarded as innocent of any allegation that they were shot while handling firearms or explosives -- if that is the case, could he please tell me why they were shot

    Let's work together and build together, and as we do that, the real solution will begin, ... The real healing process will begin, and we will erode the distrust of the past.

    The whole world is in favor of this agreement, ... as fascists if they try to wreck this agreement.

    They believed that Britain was in Ireland defending their own interests, therefore the Irish had the right to use violence to put them out. My argument was that that type of thinking was out of date.

    I was grateful for the opportunity to make a difference. The political violence really started in 1970-1971. The political difficulties start a little bit beyond that.

    People were so keen to get investment. In those days, there was quite significant unemployment in Northern Ireland, and that had been the general pattern in Northern Ireland for many, many years.


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