If You Ask Me
by Fionnuala O Connor

When Upper Bann’s unionist voters counted him out last week, David Trimble behaved with considerable grace. It was a dignified finale for a career too often characterised by other qualities. The Trimble images that linger are of a politician as conflicted and awkward as the squad he headed.

From the Vanguard days, when the young David Trimble decided that William Craig was the most admirable unionist politician, there’s the bookish chap in severe black-framed glasses – sitting on the edge of the platform at one of those rallies where Mr Craig took the salute from men in arm-bands and leather jackets.

Fast forward to modern times, and the period that made Mr Trimble leader of Ulster Unionists. Throughout his 10 years in the job – you can’t say at the top, since this is a party without penalty for indiscipline - the images that gave him most trouble were of Drumcree, where Orangemen insisted on marching past Catholic homes. The first probably remains the most damaging, of a man hoist to his tiptoes, whisked along by the bulk of Ian Paisley. And propelled, as he later admitted, by fear of losing face in his own constituency.

That Portadown lap of triumph with linked hands held high left a toxic trail in two directions. One led to the local Orange Lodge, surely now entitled to think their MP had pledged himself to their cause in perpetuity. And the other trail of damage led to the people in Garvaghy Road, who believed they had agreed a compromise of a short and silent Orange march – then heard a grinning Mr Trimble announce that there had been no compromise.

From the following September comes the reward for that piece of machismo – when as a comparatively recent MP he becomes leader of the Ulster Unionist Party. The older Ken Maginnis, John Taylor, Willie Ross, and Martin Smyth sit defeated on the Ulster Hall stage. Step forward David Trimble.

Then there are those memorable glimpses of a red-faced and be-sashed Mr Trimble between Orangemen and RUC, wagging his finger like a cross schoolmaster - at the police.

A year later, in 1997, Mr Trimble was televised walking into negotiations with Ulster Unionist colleagues, and former loyalist paramilitaries – including several convicted of murder and other serious crimes. 1998 brought assorted Trimbles: sitting beaming in the sunshine with Tony Blair and John Hume, the Agreement signed and about to be ratified by an overwhelming majority – though only narrowly by unionists; holding hands in the air again, this time with Bono between him and John Hume. And receiving the Nobel Peace Prize, to be shared with Mr. Hume.

But the prize went unmentioned at that year’s party conference. It’s been 10 years of turbulence, and that’s just inside David Trimble. Mr Trimble was almost as conflicted about the agreement he signed as the people he supposedly led. He leaves a legacy of good intent holed by internal contradiction, and the wreckage of an already dysfunctional party.

If You Ask Me Archive