David Trimble
David Trimble
William David Trimble, Baron Trimble, PC, is a British politician who was the first First Minister of Northern Ireland from 1998 to 2002, and the leader of the Ulster Unionist Partyfrom 1995 to 2005. He was also the Member of Parliament for Upper Bann from 1990 to 2005 and the Member of the Legislative Assemblyfor Upper Bann from 1998 to 2007. In 2006, he was made a life peer in the House of Lords and a year later left the...
NationalityIrish
ProfessionPolitician
Date of Birth15 October 1944
CityBangor, Northern Ireland
CountryIreland
Our principal objective is ... to see the administration re-formed but re-formed on a sound basis.
Whatever decisions are taken, there is no place for violence and riot and the incidents that we have seen over the last few days,
The people that we really need the answers from are the Republican movement and what they've got to do is they have got to tell us what they are going to do.
He has got to create confidence ... in Northern Ireland that the law will be observed and will be enforced, and when republicans are found to be behaving in a way that is contrary to their undertakings, that he will act.
had not been seen in the talks before.
until such time as the IRA has been disbanded.
We have said repeatedly that we jumped first and gave them the chance to act... and a second chance. Doing nothing is not a cost-free option to republicans,
There are still substantial areas of disagreement, .. you simply have to look at the public statements to see there is a significant gap.
In the future there cannot be room for ambiguity. They have to make their position absolutely clear before they can expect anyone to respond to it.
The one thing I can assure you is that I'm not going to do a Prescott.
The Republican movement have not behaved properly over the years. They have not themselves implemented the Agreement. If they had implemented the Agreement then they would have disarmed completely in May 2000, that is what they undertook to do, that is what they failed to do.
The decision to give an indicative date for a return is a mistake. It degrades the process. It degrades human life.
Politics can be likened to driving at night over unfamiliar hills and mountains. Close attention must be paid to what the beam can reach and the next bend.
As we take stock of this century of achievement, Ulster Unionists have every reason to feel proud.