Trimble, David (1944- )

Northern Ireland politician, leader of the Ulster Unionist party (or Official Unionist Party, OUP) from 1995 and Northern Ireland's first minister 1998–2002. Representing the Upper Bann constituency in the House of Commons from 1990, he won the leadership of the OUP in August 1995, when James Molyneaux decided to retire at the age of 75. Trimble shared the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1998 with John Hume for their efforts to find a peaceful solution to the conflict in Northern Ireland, and was one of the leading negotiators in the creation of a cross‐community government in Belfast which met for the first time in December 1999 as powers were devolved to the province by the British government.

Trimble, originally seen as a hardliner and not likely to move easily into Molyneaux's seat, proved to be more flexible and tolerant than had been predicted. Following his election as OUP leader, he sought to give an impetus to the Northern Ireland peace process, meeting UK prime minister John Major, Irish taoiseach John Bruton, and US president Bill Clinton. Still emphasizing the need for the Irish Republican Army (IRA) to decommission its weaponry, he nevertheless suggested a route to all‐party talks through elections, although this proposal was opposed by republican spokespersons.

He accepted the 1998 Good Friday Agreement on power‐sharing, which was rejected by the more extreme Democratic Unionist Party, led by Ian Paisley, and the United Kingdom Unionist Party, led by Robert McCartney. He was chosen as Northern Ireland's first minister after the newly elected Northern Ireland Assembly met in June 1998, and seemed determined to make the peace agreement work. In the first meeting between Unionist and Republican leaders for several generations he met the president of Sinn Fein, Gerry Adams, at Stormont in September 1998. His determination to make a success of the power‐sharing Northern Ireland Assembly was underlined when, after the Assembly's powers had been suspended following the failure of the IRA to begin decommissioning of arms, Trimble persuaded his Ulster Unionist party to return to the Assembly in exchange for another IRA initiative on decommissioning.

Educated at Queen's University Belfast, Trimble qualified as a barrister and lectured in law at Queen's for 22 years before fully committing himself to politics. He represents a new, less dogmatic, breed of Northern Ireland politicians, willing to consider closer links with the province's southern neighbour.