How John Hume’s legacy stretched beyond Northern Ireland to Leeds: Michael McGowan

John Hume was passionate about European co-operation. He was renowned as the visionary and architect of the Good Friday Agreement following the slaughter of more than 3,000 people during the troubles in Northern, and his commitment to peace and non-violence was based on an ingrained belief that all politics is local.

As a young man, John Hume was brought up in the city of Derry where, as a result of poverty and discrimination against the Catholic community in housing and jobs, he became active in the civil rights movement and the creation of credit unions.

When major banks would not help the many poor of Derry with loans, he knocked on every door in the Bogside and started a credit union and soon became President of the Irish League of Credit Unions.

When he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize at the ceremony in Oslo in Norway in 1998, he said that if the only thing in his life was his work with credit unions his life would not have been wasted. He said: “No movement has done more good for the people of Ireland, north and south, than the credit union movement.”

When John made one of his early trips to meet Senator Edward Kennedy in America he was compelled to approach his credit union to help finance the visit which reflects the interdependence of local and global.

He was a proud European and internationalist and after becoming an MEP he built powerful allies in the EU in support of Northern Ireland.

In 1986 he began secret talks with Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein and, at great personal risk, constantly argued for non-violent action in seeking peace.

In his lecture in Leeds, he emphasised the important link between local and global action, and he became Patron of Leeds City Credit Union which was founded by a group of trade unionists who worked for Leeds City Council and is now the largest credit union in England and Wales.

John Hume was a graduate of French and History, and a school teacher, before he became a full time politician. He visited schools and colleges in Leeds and developed close links with Park Lane College from which students made regular visits to the European Parliament in Brussels.

He was popular with the local Irish community, visited the Leeds Irish Centre, and on one an occasion when we called at the former Harp public house in Little London, the word went round and, within minutes, scores turned up and wanted to meet him.

His son, John Hume Junior, was a student at the former Leeds Polytechnic which has since become a university from which John Hume Senior was awarded an honorary degree in recognition for his work for peace.

As an MEP John Hume looked towards the example of European unity for inspiration and used Europe as a resource for peace resolution. The French President of the EU Commission, Jacques Delors, visited Northern Ireland and the EU gave strong financial support towards the peace process in the border areas.

In Strasbourg, John often looked out of the Parliament window at the Alsace region which today is French, but was formerly part of Germany.

He said that if people who lived at the time of conflict in Europe between France and Germany spoke of the two countries eventually working together, they would be considered to be talking nonsense.

John said that if the walls of Berlin could be demolished ending the division of Germany and the Cold War, the same was surely possible for the walls which divided Belfast.

John never lost his closest links with the Derry he loved and where he died last week after a long illness.

He was well known in Leeds from his many visits with his wife Pat also a former teacher.

He was global statesman who really did believe that all politics is local.

Despite being awarded the Nobel Peace Price, the Gandhi Peace Prize and Martin Luther King Award, John has always considered his role in helping establish the Derry Credit Union in 1960 as his greatest achievement.

Michael McGowan is a former Labour MEP for Leeds and Co-ordinator of the Olof Palme Peace Lectures.

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